Protecting Young Children from the Flu: Info for New and Not-So-New Dads

Dads have a major role to play in keeping their family healthy. Knowing how best to protect yourself, your partner, and your children from the flu is important.

Newborns and Infants Under Six Months

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and many other health experts are recommending that children as young as six months be vaccinated against the flu. But what about children under six months? Getting the flu is no fun for anyone, but for newborns and infants, it’s especially risk—and that can make those first few months of your baby’s life a pretty scary time. Because their immune systems aren’t strong enough to fight off infections, infants who get the flu have a higher risk of complications, which can include pneumonia, dehydration, ear and sinus infections, hospitalization, and even death. So how can you protect your infant?

• Take basic precautions: this includes making sure that you and anyone else who will be visiting and/or caring for your baby wash their hands with warm water and soap, use hand sanitizer when handwashing isn’t practical, wear a mask, and stay away if they have any symptoms such as sneezing, runny nose, or fever or simply don’t feel well.
• Talk with your doctor about whether a flu vaccine is appropriate for you. And ask those who will be visiting and/or caring for your baby to do the same. Vaccination not only reduces the chance that you’ll catch the flu, it also makes you less likely to spread it to your baby (or anyone else) and significantly lowers the chances of a severe infection that among other things could lead to hospitalization.
• Increase air quality. Because flu is an airborne virus, try to keep your home well ventilated. If it’s warm enough outside, opening windows can help. You may also want to upgrade the filters on your heating and air conditioning systems.
• Encourage your partner to breastfeed. Helpful antibodies the new mom has (including those acquired via a flu vaccine she may have received during pregnancy) will be passed on to the baby via the breastmilk.

Timing: it takes a little while for the flu shot to trigger your immune system to protect you—often as long as two to three weeks. So, the sooner you—and anyone else who’ll be around your baby—get your shot, the better.

Children Six Months and Older

The bad news: During the 2022-23 season, the flu was responsible for at least 27 million illnesses, 300,000 hospitalizations, and 19,000 deaths. The good news: flu vaccines can reduce the risk of all of those bad outcomes. The even better news: As mentioned above, the flu vaccine is now available to (and recommended for) children six months and older. The CDC estimates that in the 2021-22 season, flu vaccines prevented 1.8 flu-related million illnesses, 22,000 hospitalizations, and nearly 1,000 deaths.

Unfortunately, only about half of eligible Americans actually got the flu shot during the 2022-23 season. The rate was a little higher for those six months through 17 years (57.4% received at least one dose of the vaccine), but lower for those over 17 (only 46.9% were vaccinated). Millennials (born between 1981 and 1994) were the least likely of any age group to be vaccinated. And African Americans were the least likely of any ethnic group.

What accounts for this high rate of non-compliance with a recommendation that has a high likelihood of reducing illness and preventing death? The biggest culprit seems to be lack of information—or misinformation. In a recent study by the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), “when provided with a series of facts about the flu, 82% of adults got at least one fact wrong, and 28% got all of them wrong.” Millennials (86% and 31% respectively) and African Americans (89% and 36%) performed slightly worse than average.

Among parents, 59% said that “that their child has missed a flu shot at least once, often due to misinformation or misunderstandings.” In addition, “21% of parents said they didn’t want their children to get sick from the flu shot, 13% think they don’t need it, and 10% don’t actually think flu is that serious.”

Sadly, dads are perhaps the worst informed group of all, with 73% of dads in the AAFP study “vastly underestimated the number of flu-related deaths” in the previous season. Nearly a quarter of men (23%) vs only 5% of women said that they had skipped getting a flu shot for themselves because they don’t think the flu is that serious. And nearly ten times more men than women (19% vs 2%) cited the same excuse for not vaccinating their child(ren).

Clearly, ignorance and misinformation about vaccines increases the risks not only to the individuals who make bad decisions, but also to their families and their communities.

What to Do

As a dad, it’s important that you speak with your medical provider about the risks of flu and the possible benefits of vaccines for you and any friends and family members who will be around your children.

In addition to the vaccine, it’s important that you take other steps to reduce your risk of getting and transmitting the disease to others:

• Stay away from people who are sick—and ask them to stay away from you and your child(ren).
• Cover your mouth and nose when sneezing.
• Wash your hands often with soap and warm water, or use an alcohol-based cleaner.
• Try to keep your hands away from your eyes, nose, or mouth.
• Clean and disinfect frequently touched surfaces. The flu virus can live for as much as 24 hours on hard (or many) surfaces.
• Stay away from others—especially the expectant mom—if you have any symptoms, including body aches, chills, coughs, diarrhea, fatigue, fever, runny or stuffy nose, and vomiting.
• Call your provider if you or your child gets sick. There are antiviral medications that can reduce the severity of symptoms.

Photo by nappy