Three year old vaccinations- did you tell them about them first?

[hermionieweasley]

If I tell my Ds that his booster jabs on Tuesday will hurt for a little while and then get better, I'm sure he's going to worry and be difficult and not let the nurse near him. How could I prepare him
To make it as smooth sailing as possible?

Yes I did. However my DS is a bit different from the norm as he has had 8 operations so I needed to reassure him that no ‘sleeping mask’ would be involved.

Nah. It’s a concept so far removed from anything they know I couldn’t see the point.

Took the, held them, shoved a Freddo in their face as soon as it was done.

I told DD she was going to the doctors and the injection would stop her getting poorly.

I held her and she watched the 2 injections without making a fuss.

I took a chocolate lolly with me as a distraction. I think it starts to hurt properly about 5-10 minutes afterwards, that is when we were in the car and I gave her the lolly which stopped the tears.

Her older brother on the other hand.......you'd have thought we'd cut his arm off. The drama could not be resolved with chocolate.

We just said on the day they were going to have a nurse put medicine in their arm. It would hurt a tiny bit but we’d count to twenty and then it would be fine. They could pick something out the treat box to take to eat afterwards. I wouldn’t give them lots of time to get worked up about it but I also need them to set foot in the doctors surgery again and to trust me when I tell them things won’t hurt, so if something is going to hurt I’ll be honest.

They screamed they didn’t like it as the needle went in and I had to hold them quite tight for the second jab but after we counted to twenty they had stopped crying and were loudly demanding their box of smarties.

You don't actually have to pinch them to simulate the feeling. Just pressing with a nail is close enough, and doesn't actually hurt! Of course a real injection does hurt a bit more than that, but it's close enough that they know what to expect and are less likely to freak out, apparently.

DS1 is like me and terrified of needles. I left it until the last minute and brought him a chocolate kinder egg. He complained for years that it wasn't worth it

We told her on the way, took a bag of chocolate buttons, she was fine

I did but also we have a play medical kit and she practised giving injections before we went

I told mine before hand and promised a treat afterwards just going for an ice cream or something. I've found the 3 year ones the easiest tbh because they're old enough to explain what's going to happen.

One of mine I told her on the way & we stopped in for the jag on the way to a routine activity that she loved. It was barely a blip in our day.
One I presented with a scroll with details of the quest to defeat disease- I know it’s totally mortifying but it really worked & the day was all about the quest

I can’t remember for the others - probably something between the two extremes.

You know your child best

Yes, I was honest. I need my children to be able to trust me not to lie to them (unless I really really have to).

I told her she was having a little jab and it would sting a bit but that it was important medicine which would stop her getting poorly and she'd get a treat afterward (nothing wrong with a bit of bribery/reward in my book!). I practised poking her in the arm with my nail (gently!) and saying 'ouch! All done!'

I thought she would go WILD. She didn't. She cried a tiny bit then asked for her wispa. Job done

I think Dr Ranj does a child friendly bit about vaccinations, have a look on YouTube. It's good!

We did the Bing episode as well. My son is really good with vaccinations actually. A bit of a surprise really as he's easily scared. He didn't flinch when he had his chicken pox booster.

When his grandparents had their covid jabs he told them it wouldn't hurt and that it was medicine for the inside of their bodies lol

I got mine to give themselves a little scratch with their nail.

Then I told them that's what it was like.

The nurse also said so it's going to be a little scratch and I said like what we've been practicing.

Afterwards we had chupa chups! They still remember this in fact they said I can have a chupa chups once I've had my covid vaccine

I hate that annoying little twerp Bing too, but the vaccination episode is actually a perfect way to introduce the idea.