How can I tell if my child received a full or partial dose?

[Anonymous]

I went to Hardy Thurs night and in all the confusion I did not ask the practitioner whether she was giving my child a full or partial dose in her shot- I ASSUME it was partial because she is under 3 yo but I can't say for sure- the woman giving the shot seemed flustered in general so I didn't get a lot of info out of her... Does anyone know if children are still supposed to get the booster even if, say, she received a full dose the first time? I will check with our Dr. but I am curious to know if anyone else has had a similar experience. I don't want to give her more than she needs. Your thoughts are welcome, thanks.

[Anonymous]

Did the nurse ask your child's age before administering the vax?

The cut-off for dosage is 3 years old, so if your child is close to 3, I wouldn't worry about it too much. And all kids under 10 need two doses, so yes, I'd go for the second.

[Anonymous]

Even in the chaos on Thursday (I was there too), they should have handed you a small card (about 2x2) that says the dose, manufacturer and lot number of the vaccine your child received.

I have now been to two flu clinics (one for DD in MoCo and one for me in DC). The slowest part of DC was something they did quickly in MoCo, which is filling out that very important little card. In MoCo, there were two nurses working together, and one was responsible for preparing the card and one was responsible for preparing and giving the vaccine. That was fast. In DC, the same nurse did both, and took more than twice the time to do it all.

[Anonymous]

I see no way to tell what your daughter got. I don't see any evidence to suggest that she gave the wrong one. But what's done is done.

Also, I do not see how getting the booster could be a problem. After all, they are recommending that people with suspected but not confirmed cases of H1N1 to get vaccinated once they are healthy.

To put yourself at rest, talk to your pediatrician. I think you are likely to be frightened and not get the booster, but you have no evidence that she got the wrong dosage, and there is plenty of reason to believe that a booster would be harmless to her.