Its official, flu season is here! We are at the beginning of the holiday season which means lots of traditions and family time ahead of us. But with this it also means that the weather may take a turn for the worse and all those icky germs will start passing around so easily. The one that I am absolutely dreading now more than ever is the flu. Why is it so scarry you may ask? Well my little one just doesn’t have the immunity yet to fight that off and there is even RSV out there we have to worry about. If you have never researched the impact of the flu and RSV on an infant, its quite terrifying and then the chances of them being hospitalized is awful. The thought of it all is unbearable.
My husband and I are adamant every year about getting a flu shot, so this year was not much different. But we have decided that if anyone in our family would like to hold our baby around the holidays, we ask that they have received their flu shot. This way we can minimize the chances of her getting the flu from someone else – especially if that person is presenting little to no symptoms.
We have dropped a few hints and let some family members know our preference for them getting the flu shot, this was before we made our official decision. Man oh man did we get pushback. Responses like “I got the flu shot once and it gave me the flu, so I won’t get it again” or “I take my vitamins, I never get the flu’ and “your baby is strong she can fight it off’. The last one just about killed me. These responses revealed to me a few things, some don’t know how vaccines work, how a virus passes around and well how out of touch they really are. With each of those reasons for not getting the flu shot, I had one follow up rebuttal. “You won’t get the flu shot this one year just to make sure this baby doesn’t get the flu?” In my mind it’s a new brainer, just get the shot for the year and call it a day. But nope, they still don’t want to do this. I guess we will see how things go this year when they unfortunately can’t hold the baby. But what else can we do?
So we’re definitely going to see how navigating these waters are going to be. I am fully prepared to be the only person who holds the baby during the holidays and well fighting everyone else off who wants to hold her. They’re going to hate it, I’m going to be the bad guy but how hard is it to get a shot?
Has anyone else experienced this with their families? How did you navigate this uncomfortable topic and how did your family react? Much appreciate your suggestion and encouragement on this one.
Thanks for reading. Cheers!!!
