Good thread Pam thanks for posting - this has been on my mind also. My doctor will likely remind me to get my own flu shot because I am a kidney patient. Some years I do so and some years I don't. I have only had the flu once in my life and that was many eyars ago after a flu shot. Of course I read all the stuff about how the newer vaccines are safer and all.... but like you I am worry more because of my grandbabies and the fact that the vaccine is so new. I have in the past refused vaccines for my children - not a popular thing to do but oh well. The H1N1 - I am also reading and wondering. Like Leslie above, my undertsanding is that the swine flu is not that serious in itself but the danger lies in it becoming so widespead....our parish nurse explained the difference between endemic, pandemic and epidemic.

I think it is a pretty hard thing for a parent to decide but the better informed we are - the better able we are to make the right decsion based on that information and not to agree to fear or refuse because of stubborness or whatever.

In the meantime, we are all washing our hands more than ever and longer than ever. I am keeping fun soap dispensers in each bathroom for the grandkids and us and little bottles of hand sanitizer in my purse and in our car.