Dr. Donna Woodson has spent years urging her elderly patients to get flu shots, but she's a little perplexed at a recent federal suggestion that young children get the shots as well.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is suggesting for the first time this year that healthy children ages 6 months to 2 years get a flu shot. If it's the first time a child has gotten a flu shot, two shots one month apart would be needed.

The CDC has always recommended that high-risk children get a flu shot, but never specifically urged healthy children to do so.

"This message from the CDC is confusing," said Dr. Woodson, a family physician in Maumee and member of the Toledo-Lucas County Board of Health.

Dr. Woodson, president of the Academy of Medicine of Toledo and Lucas County, a professional organization representing doctors, said physicians and parents have never been told to focus on giving healthy children flu shots.

She wondered if a rush of parents looking to vaccinate their children will deplete supplies for known high-risk groups, such as those 65 and older. The new information, she points out, was issued after many physician offices ordered flu vaccine supplies.

CDC officials stress the new information is only a suggestion and they've not formally recommended it. However, the CDC says recent information shows young children are at a higher risk for complications, including hospitalization, because of the flu.

Dr. Francis Rogalski, a Sylvania pediatrician, called the CDC suggestion "a great idea."

"We have been recommending flu shots for kids for years," he said of his practice. "We look for any excuse to give vaccines. I tell parents I've always given it to my own children."

Dr. Christopher Rizzo, a Cleveland pediatrician who's president of the Ohio chapter of the Academy of Pediatrics, said physicians have long reminded parents that sick children can pass the flu on to grandparents and others at high risk.

"Influenza spreads very easily, easier than a cold," Dr. Rizzo said.

Dr. Rizzo and Dr. Rogalski cautioned that parents should not feel they need to rush out and get a flu shot for their healthy children. For example, even with Dr. Rogalski pushing flu shots for children, only about 20 percent of his young patients get them.

Dr. Rizzo said, "No one expects we'll immunize every child under 2", and instead it's just something parents and physicians need to begin thinking about.

Kristopher Weiss, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Health, said the department bought 280,000 flu vaccine doses this year, which are used by health departments and some physicians to vaccinate low-income people at high risk for the flu.

The department isn't recommending health departments vaccinate healthy children, he said, although it's not discouraging private physician offices from doing so.

Dr. David Grossman, health commissioner for the Toledo-Lucas County Health Department, said his department will focus on those 65 and older and other high-risk individuals, not healthy children. Vaccine supplies are expected to be at normal levels this year. The CDC urges that those at high risk for the flu get the flu shot first - in October - and everyone else in November.

The CDC says those at high risk include those over 50 (many doctors say those 65 and older are at highest risk); anyone with chronic medical conditions like asthma, diabetes, or kidney or heart disease; residents of long-term care facilities; women who will be more than three months pregnant during flu season, and children on long-term aspirin therapy.