How To Lower Your Child’s Anxiety About Having A Vaccine

Many children will face anxiety-related not only to going to the doctor but specifically to getting their vaccines. While your child is more likely to face anxiety about getting vaccines themselves, it’s also not uncommon for you, as a parent, to feel anxious about taking your child to the doctor as well.

How To Lower Your Child’s Anxiety About Having A Vaccine

That being said, there are steps that you can take to reduce your child’s and your anxiety relating to vaccinations. Here are some tips to try next time you’re planning to visit the doctor with your anxious child:

Reduce Your Anxieties

One of the first steps toward reducing your child’s anxieties is reducing your own. Whether you’re anxious over possible side effects, for example, if a flu shot hits a nerve or causes fever, chills, or other serious possibilities, you’ll want to face those fears yourself if you want your child to stay healthy. 

Ask Questions

To conquer your anxieties, you’ll want to speak with your doctor about any concerns on your mind. Addressing the questions worrying you and getting answers directly from your doctor will help you learn how to overcome it.

Do Your Research

Additionally, you can research on your own to prepare all the facts before heading into the office. In doing this research, you’ll be sure to learn how vaccines have saved more babies and children than any other medical advances. You’ll also learn that keeping up to date with your child’s vaccine schedule isn’t only recommended but is, most importantly, necessary to their overall health. 

Find Your Calm

Finally, since you’ll be in the office with your child when getting their vaccine, you’ll want to remain calm as they’ll sense it if you’re also nervous about the vaccination process. 

Prepare Them For The Visit

Just as you want to educate yourself to reduce fears and anxieties, you’ll want to do the same for your children. Many age-appropriate books or TV shows can help you show your child exactly what they should expect from their experience.

Another way to prepare your child for their doctor’s visit would be to role-play what they can expect from their upcoming appointment. Sure, they can read books or watch shows that portray a doctor’s visit, but having a doctor’s kit in the house and letting your child play with it daily can normalize the objects they’ll encounter at the doctor’s office, making them less scared when the day finally comes. 

Don’t Make Empty Promises.

While you may think that sheltering your child from the fact that they’ll need a vaccination at the doctor’s office will keep them calm, there’s more of a chance that this plan will backfire on you. Sure, this can keep them calm temporarily. However, there’ll be repercussions once they get into the office and realize you weren’t telling the truth. 

They will not trust you in the future, but they’ll also panic more when they realize they do have a shot coming. Whereas if you’d tell them the truth from the start, they’d be able to prepare themselves. 

Utilize Distractions

During a doctor’s visit, there can be some leniency to screen time rules, snack restrictions, etc. It can be beneficial to let your child watch TV, listen to music, or even read a book during the visit, as these can help them relax and become less anxious. 

If distractions don’t seem strong enough of a solution, you can also try numbing the skin where the vaccine will be. Many doctors will do so with a popsicle that the child will be able to eat at the end of the appointment.

Be Comforting

Instead of restraining your child during a vaccination, you should hug or hold them to alleviate their fears and reduce overall anxiety. There are specific comfort positions that you can use to make your child feel secure. 

Offer A Food Reward

While ‘bribing’ should never be a constant technique, it can benefit doctor-related anxieties. Promising to give your child their favorite ice cream or candy after their doctor’s visit can boost positive associations with the experiences at a doctor’s office. 

Lower Your Child’s Anxiety About Having A Vaccine with these steps

While none of these solutions will provide results after one doctor’s visit, if you continue to practice these techniques each time you take your child to their pediatrician, slowly, they’ll become more comfortable, and their anxieties will ease over time.