BATON ROUGE - A popular flu mist vaccination is no longer available for patients this flu season.

Research from the Center for Disease Control revealed that the nasal spray vaccine was not effective during last year's flu season.

The mist gained popularity last year for children who did not want to get the flu shot, but now that option is off the table. One patient, Natasha Hall, choose to get the flu mist vaccine for the last two years for herself, along with her children.

"We just choose the mist because it was easier with little kids you don't have to hold them down, so I'm not looking forward to going and getting the shot this year," Hall said.

However, Hall realized that the mist did not keep her children from getting the flu.

"We have six in our family and four got the flu that particular year, our first year getting the mist for us that wasn't a good indicator of the mist is accurate," Hall said.

Earlier in the year, the Center for Disease Control discovered the popular flu mist was not effective among children 2 to 17 years-old. This year, the only way pediatricians are distributing the vaccine is by using the shot.

"The flu mist was not harmful, it just did not do it's job as much as we would have liked. So this year the recommendation is for flu shots only rather than doing any of the nasal flu mist," Dr. Mindy Calandro said.

One patient, Ashley Zedlitz, said that she used the mist before and her son did not get the flu.

"I was surprised when they said it was ineffective. I mean I guess we just got lucky," Zedlitz said.

She said now it is going to take a lot of convincing to get her five-year-old to get the flu shot.

"So this year he's going to have to get the shot, and we have not done that yet because he does not like shots," Zedlitz said.

Doctors advise patients to start getting the flu vaccine now as it takes up to two weeks for the vaccine to be effective.