More kids with the flu are getting severely ill or dying as vaccine rates fall, CDC reports

As fewer kids get flu shots, cases of a rare, severe complication are rising. Last season, the U.S. experienced the highest number of pediatric flu deaths in 15 years.

Christine Wear’s voice trembles talking about the upcoming flu season.

“Anxieties are high,” she said. “We’re trying to navigate what life should look like without being in a bubble.”

Wear’s son, 4-year-old Beckett, is still recovering from the flu he got way back in January. Within a week of becoming infected, he became extremely lethargic. He couldn’t move his head or his arms. He couldn’t eat or talk.

Wear, 40, of River Forest, Illinois, knew what the problem was. It was the second time Beckett had developed an inflammatory brain disease caused by the flu: acute necrotizing encephalopathy, or ANE.

This time, bouncing back to his energetic self has been slow. “It has taken longer for his brain to recover,” Wear said.