Has anyone had a baby that got the flu?

The flu (influenza) is going around my town. I am in a panic that my 2 month old will get it. He is too young for the shot, but my whole family otherwise has been vaccinated. However, a friend who is a nurse told me that she has seen patients who have had the vaccine still come down with the flu! I am terrified of my baby getting sick. I don't take him anywhere, but my older two are in school, and they bring home germs. :worry:

Has anyone had a baby get the flu? Please tell me they were okay?? ??

I would not vaccinate my baby with that.... I would just keep him home... My 2 year old had has zero vaccinations and has had a cold like twice

I personally would not let my children get that vaccination. You can have your older two change their clothes as soon as they get home to try to stop some of the germs from coming in. That's the best I've got :)

Are you breastfeading at all? I haven't had any experience with the 'flu and a young baby but DS2 escaped the Norovirus 3 years ago despite our whole household going down with it. He was 6 months at the time and still BF, I'm convinced it was down to BF. It's an extremely infectious virus and I'm sure it gave him some protection.
Mind, I don't want to scare you or make you feel bad if you aren't, it's just my experience of an infectious illness and a young baby. :)

DS2 got swine flu when he was 3 months old. We all got it around the same time. He was fine, although we had one very scary night where his temperature was sky high and wouldn't come down. We went to the out of hours GP, the nurses seemed really concerned but the doctor just sent us home. They told me to give him a bigger dose of paracetamol than they normally advise, and gave me suppositories to give him. His temp stayed high all night, we were just getting ready to bring him to hospital when he finally picked up and the fever broke.

DS1 had influenza A when he was 7 months old. He was in the hospital for 3 days. It was just before the swine flu was going around so it could have been that, just not tested. He healed up just fine, needed fluids though. I on the other hand got much much sicker than he did and took weeks to recover. So babies can be very strong and fight illnesses better than you think. Hope your little man doesn't get ill though!

My eldest got it when she was 6 months. They did bloodwork to rule out bacterial infection and confirmed it was flu.

I was a full week of illness with fever but no hospitalization of any kind. DH and I got it too. In bed for a couple of days each.

Thanks everyone. I am breastfeeding, so I hope that helps.... and I am making my kids change clothes when thy get home too. I hope everyone stays healthy.

Any one else have a story to share? I am still freaking out. :(

I have never had a baby get the flu and my older ones have gotten the flu several times (and they had the flu shot too, so I dont waste my money on the shot anymore it doesnt prevent the flu)

edit: I have had 2 babies get RSV(one at 1mos and the other 2mos) and both were hospitalized(oxygen levels low and over 101 fever) and are very healthy babies now, and I had one born with pneumonia (becuase an infection crossing over into the womb) but he was born with 101 fever and spent 10 days in NICU 7 of those days on oxygen, and he is a very healthy 3 yr old now, its not the flu but still was serious and they were all breastfed, and all very smart and absolutely healthy hth a little :)

I just wanted to say that I swear by purell! Not sure if the brand is about in america but it is basically pocket size squeezy bottles of alcohol disinfectant gel that dries instanty and kils 99.9% of germs & viruses etc. I have my house messy and with a healthy level of dirt, cat hair, bacteria etc, but outside with all the nasty bugs etc floating round I take it with me everywhere and make people use it before they touch my LO, I use it after I've touched things in shops etc, and everyone has to use it before we go back in our house lol! Sounds a bit ott but LO first had a very slight sniffles at 15 months old, then got 12hr stomach flu when my gran took them to asda (walmart) and let them sit on the ride outside without disinfecting their hands. That's it, in over 2 years, so something's working!

I will send you tons of anti-flu thoughts, and if I need to - post you a vat of purell! ;) xxxx

I feel the same way as you. I have not taken my 6 week daughter out of the house except for her doctors appt. My two older children come home from school and all of their clothes go in the laundry immediately and they wash their hands. They are only allowed to kiss the baby on the back of the head but are not allowed to touch her anywhere else.

We do have purell here! I have a bottle in my car. I do use it quite a bit, actually, but I don't often have the older kids do it. I make sure that I wash after touching doorknobs, shopping carts, etc.

Now there is the flu, Strep throat, and mono all going around my tiny town. Awful! My oldest was sick last week with a 104 fever (not the flu, though-we had her tested) and so far (knock on wood) the baby has stayed healthy. I have been crazy about hand washing!

It's probably the best thing, my mum swears by hand washing, she is a midwife an obviously works in a hospital where there are always nasty superbugs going round etc, and she is never ill!! She uses mega hot water and soap all the way up past her wrist and does it for at least 2 minutes or something but it obviously works as I can't even remember the last time she even had a cold let alone anything else.