U.S. infectious disease experts last week dismissed suggestions that there is insufficient evidence for recommending routine flu shots for healthy children between 6 and 23 months old.

A review published by the Cochrane Collaboration, an international organization that evaluates medical research, looked at 51 studies worldwide involving more than 250,000 children younger than 16. The review uncovered few studies of children younger than 2, and found that in studies of vaccines using killed virus – the only kind approved for use in children younger than 5 – shots were no more effective than placebo.

The report didn’t carry much weight with U.S. health experts.

U.S. flu experts agree more research is needed but say there is no reason to question the vaccine’s safety for toddlers. Ray Strikas, a flu specialist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the agency’s decision to add toddlers to the priority groups for flu vaccine in 2004 was based on U.S. studies showing high rates of serious flu complications in children younger than 2.