My SWCAH son and non-CAH daughter are the first ones on our ped endo’s list.  One year, when there was a shortage, we had to get a special dispensation on the government level so that whoever had any of the vaccination HAD to release it to my son.

When my son was 3 1/2 my daughter had gotten the flu from kids at school.  Needless to say, she brought it home to us.  We almost lost my son that year.  He was so dehydrated by the time we got him to the hospital that they had to drill holes into his bones to hydrate him because his veins were too flat.  The endo said it was too close.

We have gotten the flu shot every year since and have never had ANY side effects (other than a sore arm where the needle went in). 

Last year he got a strain of the flu that wasn’t planned for and therefore was not covered  by the vaccine.  Although he was in the hospital for 4 days with a fever of 104% and needed 11 bags of fluid, he didn’t go into adrenal shock or hypovholimic shock.  In the past when he has contracted a virus or strep and he would get a low grade fever, he would be nearly unconscious or at the very least he was extremely lethargic.  I had wondered at the time if he didn’t get as bad because of the initial flu shot.

I guess we will never know, but for us it will be flu shots all around.

Oh, I wanted to add that my daughter is actually needle phobic so she got the inhaled vaccine last year and wasn’t sick at all, even with the rogue strain that my son had contracted.

Whatever your decision is, I wish you all a healthy, happy year.