My twin boys are 2 1/2 y/o and I have not had them vaccinated with the flu shot, only their regular vaccines.  I have had the flu shot twice, only because my job paid for it!

When my MIL gets a flu shot, she gets sick anyway, so she doesn't get it anymore.

I think it is your own personal choice as to whether or not to vacinate your child against the flu and i understand you being nervous i went through the same thing last year when deciding to vacinate my daughter. I can tell you I talked extensivly with her pediatrician and was assured she could not get sick from the vacine as they use a dead strain of the virus in the vacine (there is a live strain in a nasal spray but this wouldnt be used on a child) my daughter also routinly gets a low grade fever from her vacines which they assure me is within normal reactions. I know for us personally it was the right decision as she had no abnormal reaction to the flu vacine and neither her nor I (who both had the shot) got the flu where as her father developed a pretty strong case of the flu last season.

not sure if this helps but here is a link to some more information about the vacine from the CDC

http://www.cdc.gov/FLU/protect/keyfacts.htm

good luck in your decision

This is just my opinion - but I NEVER received a flu shot until 2 years ago (in Nov. 2007). My son was less than a month old and I was sucked into the nurses and Dr.'s speech about "having a newborn in the house.....you & your husband must be protected.....etc." We both received shots and exactly 4 days later - we were both SO sick that I couldn't even lift my son up. My body was so weak. My MIL had to rescue us and get the baby out of the house... Now we live out of state and don't have any help from family - so I cannot risk getting that shot again. My son hasn't had the shot yet either - and he has never had the flu and will be 2 this month.

I don't agree with the flu shot - just from my experiences. The way I look at it is - if it isn't broke, don't fix it!

Good luck!

Erica are you sure you got sick from the flu shot and not that you were already sick but didn't show any symptoms yet? It usually takes about 7 to 10 days for first symptoms to appear after catching the flu.  It is very possible the shot made just worst your symptoms. 

Now remember that a year o so ago there was a bad batch of vaccine which didn't protect from the new strain that was around at that time. 

I always get vaccinated since my daughter was born, everyone in my family gets the shot. None of us has gotten sick with the flu or colds, and my daughter is always around other kids. The problem for infant/toddler and elders is that their inmune systems is not as strong as the one from an adult and it is more difficult for them to fight the sickness.  There are more people annually dying from flu than any other diseases. We are talking about thousands of people which usually are pregnant women, infants, elders and people who already are sick from other diseases with a weak inmmune system (cancer, aids, etc you get the idea)

Amy if your kid is around other young children, or people in contact with children, the probability of him catching a cold or flu is high.  Talk to you pediatrician and ask him to made an allergie test to your kid for eggs.  If that is the case then ask him for tips of how to prevent, and treat cold/flu.  I have a friend whose kid has egg allergies, his ped ask her to pull him out of pre-school because he can't get the shot, and aslo because he has a mild case of asthma.

Amy,

My husband works in the healthcare field. He has to get vaccinated as part of his job, and has recommended that our daughter, who is a year old, and myself both get vaccinated. However, there are mercury-based and non-mercury-based flu vaccinations available. He specified that I request that our daughter get a non-mercury-based flu shot. It doesn't contain the toxins that a regular flu shot does. Over the years, I've only gotten the flu shot once and that was one of the years I got sick. Basically, that was b/c I caught a strain of flu that the shot didn't protect against. There are new strains coming along all the time, so the shot isn't a guarantee, but it does minimize the chances of getting sick. So it's really just a personal choice.