H1N1 101: Important Information for the Flu Shot

There’s no doubt that you are not alone if you are concerned about the H1N1 virus. The swine flu (H1N1) scared our country into action last spring especially after a few deaths were reported. Now that flu season is in full effect, here is important information you need to know about the H1N1 virus.

Common Sense for Parents
University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston

Wash your hands after you touch
Washing your hands is the single-most important step to prevent the spread of H1N1. The virus is spread by droplets from coughs and sneezes as well as touching hands and objects contaminated with these droplets. H1N1 can survive on surfaces for two to eight hours. After contracting H1N1, you can be contagious up to 24 hours before becoming ill, and up to seven days after your symptoms first appear.

Know the symptoms
Fatigue and fever are common symptoms. Other symptoms of H1N1 include body aches, runny or stuffy nose, cough, sore throat and fever, headache, chills, diarrhea and vomiting.

Know when it is an emergency
Unfortunately, not all youngsters are as lucky, and may become severely ill from H1N1. Call your doctor if your child has symptoms including rapid breathing, not drinking enough, fussiness or if symptoms improve and then return with fever and worsened cough. Take your child to the emergency room immediately if he has trouble breathing, bluish or gray skin color, has severe or persistent vomiting, is not easily aroused from sleep or is not interacting with others.

With mild cases, call your doctor first
If your child just feels lousy, and doesn’t have a high fever or trouble breathing, call your pediatrician instead of heading to the hospital. If it is a mild illness in which there is no evidence of respiratory distress, definitely avoid the emergency room, because your wait time is probably long, and you don’t need emergency care.

Ask to talk to your doctor or his office staff first before you make an appointment. Depending on your child’s health history, your doctor may want to prescribe treatment over the phone to avoid spreading the virus to others.

If it looks like the flu, treat it like the flu
If you do go in, your doctor may give your child the rapid influenza diagnostic flu test that can determine whether your child has the flu and the general strain of the flu, but not whether it is H1N1. The Texas Department of Health is “sub-typing” for H1N1 only in seriously ill patients admitted to the hospital.

Keep the kids home
He’ll be heartsick of course, but your sick child should stay home for at least 24 hours after his fever is gone (without the use of a fever-reducing medicine) except to get medical care or for other necessities, according to the CDC.

Start the vaccinations

Federal officials expect release of the H1N1 vaccine in October. The vaccine may require a second shot given three weeks after the first. It may take another two weeks before the vaccine fully protects the body against the flu. Recent studies showed that one shot may protect against H1N1, stretching the supply of the vaccine.

If your child had H1N1 over the spring or summer, she will have some immunity to the virus. However, if you aren’t sure that your child had H1N1 (she wasn’t tested or had a false negative), the CDC recommends vaccinating anyone between 6 months and 24 years of age.

Tips for Making Flu Shots Easier on Kids… and Parents
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Health Sciences

1. With young children, parents can bring soap bubbles and blow bubbles during the injections with the parent suggesting they are “blowing away the hurt.”

2. With a crying infant, if the parent places the plastic bubble maker in front of their mouth, as they cry out, they will make bubbles.

3. For older children and adolescents, bubbles may not be as useful, but parents can help the child to breathe out slowly as if he/she were blowing up a big balloon.

4. Guide the child to use their imagination to experience being somewhere else really fun during the injections, such as at the park or at the beach. Other distraction ideas include jokes, video-games, stories and music.

5. Ask your doctor for a prescription for a numbing cream or patch and put on the areas to be injected. Do this at home before going to the clinic so the medicine has time to work. Ask the office nurse where she/he plans to do the injections, such the thigh or arm, so that you numb the correct spot.

6. If your doctor approves, give your child a dose of pain reliever, such as Tylenol, about one hour before the injection. After returning home, put an ice bag on the injection site to reduce local swelling and pain.

Visit the Center for Disease Control to find out everything you need to know about the H1N1 Flu at www.cdc.gov/H1N1FLU.