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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that children 6 months and older receive a flu vaccination and that kids who qualify to receive a COVID-19 vaccine also do so.

“For the COVID-19 vaccine, children will get two shots at least 21 days apart, similar to adults,” Dr. Mona Amin, a board-certified general pediatrician and founder of PedsDocTalk explains. “However, doses for [kids ages] 5-11 is 10 micrograms, which is a third of the dose for adults.”

Amin says children can receive both the COVID-19 vaccine and the flu shot on the same day, similar to the recommendation for adults.

There are two main methods parents can choose from to get their children vaccinated against the flu: an injection or a nasal mist.

“This year for the 2021-2022 influenza season, there are two types of vaccines available,” says Amy Verlsteffen, a nurse practitioner at TytoCare, an online urgent care company. “The difference between the two forms of the vaccine is that the shot is an injection made of inactivated — or dead — particles of the virus and the nasal spray is a live virus that has been altered so it replicates in the nose but doesn’t cause the disease.”

Before you head to the pharmacy for flu shots or go in for routine vaccinations at your child’s next checkup, learn from Yahoo Life’s recent discussions with pediatricians and child therapists, who provide helpful information and tricks for how to make the vaccine experience easier for kids who may be nervous about needles.

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