4 year old getting needles

[Bpat]

Hi everyone,

Just looking for a bit of advice please. I am taking my 4 year old Niece for some needles tomorrow and wondered what the best approach is? Anyone have any tips for distracting and keeping her calm?
Do I tell her she is getting them or not?

Thank you, B

Take a screen with TV download to watch during

Take chocolate for after

do you tell her first…. Yes I would as she’s going to work it out once she sees the needle and if she’s going to refuse you want to know in advance of the nurse’s office so you can chat about it and be prepared ! For a 2 year old I probably wouldn’t but for a 4 yr old yes.

Yes, definitely tell her what she's going for and explain the importance.

Theres an episode of Bing (called 'Vaccination') that might be worth watching with her - it's available on iPlayer. It's a really child friendly way of exploring what might happen without putting the emphasis too heavily on the actually process. I'd also suggest taking a favourite cuddly toy.

I will say, when my son had his preschool vaccinations m, the nurser was very reassuring. He's since seen baby brother have his and again nurse talked him through everything, which definitely helped.

By needles do you mean a jab or a blood test? I always tried to get my DD interested in the process. So explained to her exactly what would happen including that it will hurt but for a very short moment. For blood tests I asked her to observe the colour of her blood and see what a deep beautiful red it is. If that fails then I'd go for distraction.

I imagine it's the pre school boosters that she is going for. Might you need a letter of permission if its not your child?

What do you mean by needles?

I've always told mine it's not too bad and demonstrated a sort of sharp point like a sharp pencil tip so they no to expect a bit of a scratch. We have a savage cat so I've always been able to say it's not as bad as a cat scratch and they always laugh and agree afterwards. Don't let the nurse doing it make a big fuss, I had to ask one nurse to be quiet once because my dd was fine but the nurse seemed to want to make her scared "Oh, are you alright?, it's not nice is it, are you going to be brave and have a cuddle with Mummy?" She went on an on like that for ages till I said "Thank you, she's all good, she knows what it feels like and isn't worried at all so let's not give her any ideas"

Injection, vaccination, jabs, jags.

Vaccinations? Blood tests?

Be more specific.

Just taken my 3.5 year old for pre school boosters. We watched the Bing vaccinaton episode in the morning then I told him he was going for his vaccinations that day. Seemed to work ok. In the actual appointment it was still a case of holding him very tightly though, especially as it was more than one jab.

Sit her on your knee, arms wrapped around her and holding her arms, or facing you on your knee so your head blocks their view. Try to contain her feet so she doesn't kick the nurse and keep her arm still.
Normally once it's in and there's a plaster it's forgotten