…happened today. We’d scheduled it for last week, but had some questions about thimerosal. Thimerosal, if you didn’t know, is a preservative in the flu shot; it consists of some mercury, which is generally not something you want accumulating in your body, and there have been claims over the years about mercury and thimerosal in particular creating greater risk of autism among other problems. It’s been in flu shots in particular for years and years and years.
In the end, we decided to get the shot. Better to be protected than not, especially given the jobs his parents have.
We were somewhat (read: very) disappointed that our pediatrician and his clinic don’t offer the thimerosal-free versions of the flu shot, but what can you do? As best as we could determine, the single-dose thimerosal-free shots for babies are in very short supply anyway, and not widely available. So you do what you have to do…
To top it all off, he has to go back in a little over a month for a second one! Kids under 1 year (but over 6 months) have to have TWO shots, at least a month apart. At least Benjamin doesn’t cry all that much with shots; a few seconds worth of unhappiness and he was done, basically.
