Flu shots: Why a Flu Vaccine is Important for Your Health

Here is a typical dinner conversation in our home every fall:

Me: FYI, we’re getting our flu shots next week.

Kid: What?! No! Why?

Kid #2: Those shots don’t even help! Remember when I was sick over Christmas??

Me: That was maybe 5 years ago.

Kid #3: I don’t even need it – I don’t get sick.

Me: We are all getting our flu shot!

Doctor Dad: blah blah blah, yada, yada, yada. (A long explanation of why we need the shots)

A Flu Shot is a Good Idea – Here is a brief summary of Dinner Table Doctor’s reasoning:

You wear a seatbelt, right? If you’ve never been in an accident, you still wear a seatbelt because you know it’s safer. Seatbelts also don’t work 100% of the time, but everyone agrees they do work a lot of the time – enough so that they’re worth wearing. Car accidents can be minor fender benders or a major accident. Either way you wear a seatbelt. Even if a seatbelt is slightly uncomfortable, you’re probably going to wear it just in case.

We know flu shots help. They’re not 100% effective, but they work much of the time, so why wouldn’t you get one? Even if you have never had the flu, why take the chance? The flu can cause you to miss a week or two of work, easily. The flu could kill you. Why wouldn’t you get the shot? Even if your arm is a little sore, common sense tells you it’s worth the extra protection.

Flu Shot Dessert

I find it helps to plan a special dessert on the evening of our big flu shot day. I have a big problem with using food for comfort and reward, which is NOT recommended by DTD. One very special dessert for the little ones is a homemade ice cream cake.  This is so easy and so impressive. You’ll be a hit and your kids will be thrilled.

Ice Cream Cake

• 1 or more boxes of ice cream sandwiches (depending on how big you want the cake to be)
• 1 or more containers of Cool Whip (same as above)

Arrange the ice cream sandwiches on a platter.  You can either stack them really high or make a long row of them. use your imagination. Frost the cake by covering the sandwiches in Cool Whip. Use food coloring if needed. Once I made a Star Wars light saber cake by cutting a long piece of cardboard and covering it in tin foil. Then I laid out the ice cream sandwiches in a long row and frosted them with green Cool Whip. The cake was about six feet long, so my kids were very impressed. They don’t remember the flu shot – just the cake.