Here's to Less Screaming in Vax Lines

Positioning a child for connection and comfort can reduce the trauma of injection time.

Standing in vaccination lines is stressful enough without hearing the sound of children crying. Parents and Injection Techs all despise the necessity of shots almost as much as children do. It seems a barbaric practice, but what is truly surprising is that simple neurological trauma reduction principles are not widely used to minimize the traumatic experience.

At my son’s very last vaccination visit, the pediatrician taught me something I wished I’d known since his very first one.

She had him put his arms around my neck, and rest his head on my shoulder on the opposite side of the needle. How many times had I wanted to throw myself between my baby and the pain? This was such a simple hack that I wondered why they don’t teach it in med school. While she prepped his other shoulder for the shot, she had us count backwards from ten. Or take five breaths together. I can’t remember, but singing a song would have worked just as well. When he flinched, I was already holding him securely, so I…