I don't have enough knowledge to advise you, but I will say that I share your concerns about the H1N1 vaccine. All the scary information out there had me confused about what to do. I spent hours reading all I could on the flu itself, the vaccine and the anti-viral drugs. I came away from that feeling like the best course for me and my family was to naturally boost the immune system with things such as Vitamin D, Astragalus and Elderberry. We are choosing not to get the vaccine based on the questionable effectiveness of all vaccines and the concern of injecting foreign materials into the bloodstream. There are concerns too about long term side effects. Just because initial reports show low incidence of side effects, how does the vaccine effect long term cell function? When things happen several years later, it can be difficult to correlate. The NVIC (National Vaccine Information Center) website has a lot of information that could be helpful in making your decision.

If the worst case scenario of 90,000 deaths occurs from H1N1, in our population of about 308 million, that is a .03% chance of dying - 99.97% chance of living! I wonder if a questionable vaccine worth the possible risks when your chances of being fine are so high.

There is also too much controversy about the effectiveness and side effects of the anti-viral drugs such as Tamiflu. From what I gather, they are only supposed to shorten the flu by about a day if they work at all. They also have shown to perpetuate resistant, stronger viruses. We definitely don't want that.

I would also suggest trusting your mother's intuition. Too many times, mothers are told to offer their children up to whatever the loudest voices are telling them is right. Mothers cringe and give in, stuffing thier inner voices away, talked into dismissing their instincts about how best to protect their children. Your intuitive voice deserves as much attention as any other - including mine!

Good luck to you. I wish for good health for you and your family.