The flu shot is very safe for children, so the best advice is to have kids - and everyone else in the family - vaccinated. Watch as pediatrician Lisa Thornton, MD, dispels the myth that the flu shot causes illness, and urges you to get vaccinated.
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A lot of parents ask me if the flu vaccine is safe. They're under the impression that the flu vaccine causes the flu. It does not. You know people get the flu vaccine and a couple of days later they might get a little sniffle or get a little sick and they think ohh the vaccine caused it.
Not true, you are already exposed, you got your virus, it was not caused by the vaccine. The vaccine is made of dead virus, it can't cause the flu. You may have a little bit symptom but nothing like if you get the flu, because if you get the flu you know it. You're on your back for a long time, your child is home from school, you're missing work.
The best advice for the flu vaccine is to get it, and have your children get it. Have everyone in the family get it because then you can stay healthy if you're in the winter month, and no one is having to stay home in bed feeling miserable.
Lisa Thornton, MD, is a practicing pediatrician and a frequent television health commentator. She is the Medical Director of Pediatric and Adolescent Rehabilitation for KidsRehab and an assistant professor at the University of Chicago.
