Damned if you do...

A note from Orla's Mum today. We have been "invited" to take Orla for her first H1N1 (i.e. swine flu) vaccination next Monday. Apparently, children under the age of 9 need two doses three weeks apart to achieve full immunity. As blip is a record for Orla of her childhood, we thought it important to include a reference to this.

Orla has had all of her childhood vaccinations so far, and we felt it important that she did have them; however in this case we have decided not to take her for the injections. There are many reasons for this, not least of which is that Orla exhibited flu-like symptoms last summer after being exposed to one of her little friends who was later diagnosed with swine flu. So if she's already had a mild case of flu then she'll have as much immunity as the vaccination would confer anyway. Besides this, we are simply not convinced that there is sufficient evidence that this vaccination is safe for children as young as Orla.