For those who don’t know yet, the American Academy of Pediatrics is recommending flu shots for all children 6 months old or older. The updated recommendations have been approved by the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the American Academy of Family Physicians. The recommendations, published in the journal Pediatrics, follow those released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"Vaccination is the best protection against influenza," said Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Disease. The message for most people is get your flu shot! About two weeks after vaccination, antibodies that provide protection against virus infection develop in the body. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in five Americans get the flu every year. Of these, 200,000 are hospitalized and about 36,000 die from influenza-related complications. Last year, 86 children between the ages of 15 and 17 died of influenza.

Stopping flu transmission among young children is an important step to improve overall public health.Some states, including New Jersey, have created a policy that requires children to get flu shots in order to attend preschools and day-care centers. The policy applies to children between 6 months and 5 years who are attending licensed day care and preschool programs. The measure has generated criticism and protests from parents, who claim that the requirement violates their freedom of choice and that the shot should be optional and not mandatory. In New Jersey, preschoolers are also required to get a vaccine against the germ that causes pneumonia.