The most common adverse outcome for influenza in the pediatric age group is hospitalization. However, this risk is largely confined to the very young, especially children under 6 months of age, in whom the hospitalization rate is approximately 1 in 1,000. By two years of age the hospitalization rate for influenza is no higher than for older children or adults under age 50, the age groups with the lowest risk.
The risk for death due to influenza in a child is very low. Since 2004, when the CDC began to gather data on this subject, there have been between 50 and 150 pediatric deaths due to flu each year. The exception was during the 2009 Pandemic, when approximately 1,200 children died from Novel A(H1N1) according to CDC estimates.