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The Flu Bug

Protecting Your Kids From Influenza

By Dr. Vincent Iannelli

If your child does get the flu, in addition to symptomatic treatments that your pediatrician may recommend, such as an age-appropriate pain and fever reducer, cold and cough medicine and extra fluids, your child may benefit from specific flu treatments. These include flu medicines like Amantadine, Rimantadine, Zanamivir and Oseltamivir, which can reduce flu symptoms and shorten the amount of time that your child is sick by one or two days. They must be started within two days of your child getting sick, though, and your pediatrician will likely want to do a flu test to make sure that your child really has the flu. There is some concern that using these flu medicines can lead to resistance and that they may not work in the future if we keep using them so much.

It would be easy to start panicking when you hear about flu vaccine shortages, but keep in mind that there will still be 54 million doses of flu shots available this year. With all of the extra media attention right now, if everyone at high risk gets vaccinated early, especially younger children, maybe it will keep the flu from spreading and this season from ever getting really started.

Want to see more?

• Family Energy Magazine
• 20 Questions: What to Ask Your Pediatrician
• Tackling Influenza
• Talk about it!

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