When are your kids getting seasonal vax?

[magma]

I have a high schooler and middle schooler. I see the Covid booster is available now as well as flu shot. When do you get these for your kids? Wait until mid fall so it lasts through winter? What’s the medical rec here? I don’t have a chance to ask their ped until late October.

[waverly]

I tried to schedule my kids for Covid, but the app is still giving me problems, so I think that means the kid version has not shipped yet. I was able to get an appointment for myself for next week.

I also want to get the Flu vaccine hopefully by October. We tend to have more of an issue with Flu in October- December here. We haven't had a lot of March/ April Flu here, so I try to get it earlier. 

[ssmjlm]

I try and get ours around Veteran's Day. Last year we had a really hard time getting the Covid booster for the under 12 and ended up at the pedi at a really inconvenient time.

[glitzy07]

My son just had his well check and school sports physical on the first day our clinic had the flu shot available. Even our doctor said it was early and that she didn't think he had to have it done that day. The boys and I will probably go to the pharmacy in the grocery store sometime in September to get it done.

[expectantsteelerfan]

My kids have their well-checks mid-Sept. and early Oct. due to their birthdays, so we do them them. I just had my annual Dr. appt. myself yesterday but said it was too early. I will wait till late Sept. or early Oct. to get mine.

[Saudade]

Neither my clinic nor my kids' clinic has the new covid and flu vaccines.

My clinic does have the new flu but we're not allowed to administer yet so we're not advertising it yet.

I usually get the kids done at the end of September

[186momx]

DD gets really sick from both the covid and flu vaccines (body aches, fevers, fatigue) so I try to get it early before stuff gets crazy. It normally isn't available until October here in PNW and by then it is hit or miss when or if she gets them. She is 13 now so maybe she can get the adult dose, which is available earlier?

I will get updated vaccines at my annual due in November with the hopes that I can stay healthy during tax season. I also get sick from the vaccines and am able to schedule sick time if needed during that time.

[beerlover]

This just inspired me to look, I got DS's Covid vaccine last year on 11/10, so I guess I might try to schedule with Walmart again around the same time. There are not a lot of places that offer the Covid vaccine for kids here, but Walmart ended up working great because I could bribe him with a toy after, lol.

He usually gets his flu shot when he has his yearly well check which is in early October.

[waverly]

New Covid vaccines have shipped. I was able to get myself and my 13 year old son booked. I had to go to another pharmacy for my daughter because I guess the closer pharmacy doesn't have the kid dosage shipment yet. We have 3 separate appointments so that is annoying, but mostly because I have to work around my schedule in case of side effects.

[sillygoosegirl]

Normally as soon as possible, but we all just had COVID earlier this month, so that one at least we will be putting off until later in the fall. Not sure about flu.

[sdlaura]

We never got all my kids all of their first round COVID shots - oops. It was such a PITA with the different doses and number of shots per age, trying to get a third shot for the youngest. They aren't offered at our doctor's office anymore.

Our health system makes it really easy to get everyone flu shots at drive-through events. So I usually do that for the whole family in September. I wish that was an option here for COVID boosters- I'll have to look into that.

[wanderingback]

Even if you don’t have an appointment if you have an online patient portal you could send a message and a nurse usually triages messages and can tell you if/when their office will have vaccines and when they recommend to get them.

We haven’t gotten any info from our doctor’s office yet. But hopefully they’ll be available for both Covid and flu vaccines by mid September is when I would plan to get myself and our daughter vaccinated.

[thebreakfastclub]

We get the flu and Covid shots at the Taeget pharmacy sometime in October usually.

[ilikedonuts]

We go to Disney every year for Halloween week so we’ll get flu and Covid vaccines at the very beginning of October.

[hermione]

We have trips the second and fourth weeks of Oct. so probably last week in Sep.

[devonpow]

I have a 17 year old and 12 year old. They will get their flu shots in early October - that’s when our pediatrician recommends and does a clinic. DS1 had Covid last week and DS2 has Covid now so they will get that vaccine in December.

There’s a LOT of Covid around right now.

[meowmaps]

I was at the pediatrician on Monday for my 3 year old’s well check and they said they don’t have or plan to order the Covid booster. I don’t get it. But the flu vaccine should be in there in a couple weeks (September) and when they have it we’ll pop in for both kids to get it. I asked the NP for the best timing on that and she said September is good because it takes a bit for the antibodies to form and the flu starts here in October, sometimes as early as late September.

[beerlover]

meowmaps, our pediatrician's office never has Covid boosters, probably because I'm in a rural area in central PA and my kid is one of only like 10 kids that got vaccinated, lol.

[noodleoo]

I think we will wait until mid October for both flu and Covid. Our pedi runs a clinic for flu that makes it easy. I usually have to hunt for the kids Covid at a pharmacy.

Today was the first day of school and I'm a little DD1 will bring Covid home before then, but we couldn't have gotten the boosters in time for school anyway so it is what it is!

[erbear]

Mid September / early October for flu and Covid. We’re lower risk so I wanted protection closer to winter.

[osulori]

I'm aiming for sometime in September for flu and Covid for all of us, since our weekends aren't quite as busy with sports etc. We haven't had much in the way of side effects for either shot but I like to schedule them on less packed weekends just in case.

[cmeon]

Covid is raging here right now (in our third week of school), so my son and H are getting that one ASAP. DD and I had covid 2 weeks ago, we'll hold out until October or November to squeeze a little extra immunity out of it before 2025's dose. The boys will probably just get their flu shots when they get their covid shots, DD and I will likely go in late September for that.

We really had very mild illnesses, DD only had symptoms for 2 days, and my only "worse than a cold" symptom this time (it was definitely worse for me in 2020 pre-vaccines) was sleepiness. I'm not sure we can thank our waning vaccination status, but it didn't hurt- and I do wish we could have gotten them pre-school start.

[heygrey]

I feel like the last few years it hasn't been available until October. I get my flu shot through a clinic at work and DS can get a vaccine at a pharmacy when they are available. Our doctors don't administer them.

[cmeon]

Aug 28, 2024 12:14:25 GMT -5 heygrey said:

I feel like the last few years it hasn't been available until October. I get my flu shot through a clinic at work and DS can get a vaccine at a pharmacy when they are available. Our doctors don't administer them.

We had the first doses at our pharmacy last year, because (surprise to no one) covid was also all over the schools at that point. It was Sept 22nd, we definitely took the earliest available appointments. So this is earlier, just not early enough for schools that start in August.

[redheadbaker]

DS' middle school offers the flu vax in early October, but since he needs the COVID booster anyway, I might just have him get both at the same time at CVS or something (and myself at the same time).

[loira]

I don't imagine it will be available here until at least October.

[Susie]

We usually do kid flu vaccines when our pedi has a clinic, which is usually later in Sept.  This is the first year my youngest is 5+ so I think that gives me more options for pharmacy vaccination, but where ever we go I'm aiming for late Sept/early Oct.  H and I usually go to a pharmacy as it's more convenient than our PCP's Saturday vax clinics.

I'm less sure about covid vax timing.  We had covid in the house in early August.  Only H tested pos, but all of us had one or more low grade symptoms around the same time, and we know DS had an exposure at preschool in late July (to a teacher who was pos).  I tested neg twice; the kids' symptoms were so mild that we didn't think about it until they were already passed and H was pos.  Based on all that, and YLE's post on the subject (maybe 2 weeks ago), I'm thinking of around Nov for everybody.  We will stick with RNA platform (Pfizer/Moderna).  I will probably do Pfizer based on past experience with it being lower side effect.  My kids have been on the Moderna train, I'll have to see if they are able to mix/match brands now (ages 5 and 8-turning-9 in Nov).

[wanderingback]

I’m getting my Covid and flu vaccine today. I have a bunch of travel coming up starting next month and going through early Nov (6 work trips), so decided to get it now.

Still no word from the pediatrician’s office when they’ll start having vaccines.

[dcn]

I never ended up getting the kids a booster last year. Our clinic doesn’t get them and it was hard to find them locally and then I just never took them. I actually don’t think any of us got one last year? Woops.

The clinic we go to is doing their flu vaccines starting October 28th. If we haven’t gone locally by then we will all go then.

[waverly]

DS and I got our Covid vaccine yesterday. Thanks to Pfizer, because for me, the side effects are so much better than Moderna.

I need to schedule the 3 of us for the flu vaccine. DS has a school trip to DS early October, so I want it all done by then.