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As health care workers around the country work frantically to accommodate the millions seeking protection against the H1N1 strain of influenza, they have to contend with a countertrend: significant numbers of Americans who don't plan to vaccinate themselves or their children.
The reasons given are often that they don't think it's necessary, or that they're uncertain about the safety of the vaccine. But one response, given by 69% of parents in a September poll by Consumer Reports, is different. Those parents say they'd rather have their children build "natural immunity" to the flu — by getting sick.

Robin Li, 35, of San Francisco says she's "a cautious proponent of vaccines in general," especially for illnesses like polio or measles. But she doesn't plan to have her 1-year-old son vaccinated against the flu, seasonal or H1N1.

"I'm just not convinced that never getting sick is a goal for children. I think the body's designed to get sick and build its immune system."

It's not a case of the sniffles

Nationwide, 86 children under 18 have died from H1N1 flu this year, including 11 who died the week ending Oct. 10, the most recent week for which numbers were available. About half of the deaths in children since Sept. 1 were in patients ages 12 to 17, says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Anne Schuchat. " And it's only the beginning of October."

In a normal flu season, which starts in the fall and lasts through spring, the total number of pediatric deaths from flu range from 46 to 88, Schuchat says.

Saiya Darden, 28, of New York City knows the dangers all too well. Her 3-year-old daughter, Chasidy, spent three months in the hospital after contracting H1N1 on June 6.

"I don't even have an enemy that I would wish it upon," Darden says.

It began with a 103-degree fever. "You could feel the heat coming off," Darden says. Chasidy's lungs collapsed, and the doctors had to put her on a ventilator, Darden says.

"She had a tube down her throat," Darden says. "She had IV needles in just about everywhere on her body you could think of, from her feet to her neck."

Chasidy spent three weeks on an artificial heart-lung machine. The blood thinner required "made her start to bleed from her nose, her mouth and her ears."

Today Chasidy is doing "great," Darden says. But the experience has made Darden an advocate of the flu vaccine.