Help Your Child Overcome Vaccination Fear With These Pain Reduction Strategies

Childhood vaccination is a routine procedure but can be painful for children and upsetting for parents. Read on to know how to reduce your child's distress.

Immunization or vaccination is a simple, effective, and safe way to protect yourself against harmful diseases and infections. It equips the immune system of the body to fight against risks. Childhood vaccination is essential as it helps in preventing life-threatening diseases and aids children with a long and healthy life. According to World Health Organization (WHO), immunization is a key component of primary health care and an indisputable human right. Vaccines are an important tool for global health betterment that reduce the risk of polio, measles, smallpox, diphtheria, tetanus, hepatitis B, pertussis, and other harmful diseases or infections.

Importance of childhood immunization

According to WHO, childhood immunization saves more than five lives every minute preventing up to three million deaths a year. Some of the reasons that make childhood immunization necessary are:

• Childhood vaccines protect children against serious illnesses that can cause amputation of arms or legs, affect hearing, cause paralysis or damage to the brain that can result in death
• Non-vaccinated children can develop long-term complications and can spread the infection
• Vaccination eliminates the risk of fatal diseases that have killed or disabled people for generations
• Childhood vaccination is cost-effective as compared to treatment later
• Vaccination protects children against community transfer of deadly infection

UNICEF recognizes childhood vaccination as progress in the areas of maternal and child health and as a cost-effective means of advancing global welfare.

Tips to ease your child's pain

Childhood vaccination is a routine procedure but can be painful for children and upsetting for parents. To ease stress and anxiety due to vaccination without delaying the process, here are a few tips that can help in managing the pain during immunization:

• Mothers can continue to breastfeed their baby before, after, and during vaccination. Breastfeeding is a great way to calm your baby. The close contact provides comfort and security to the baby and helps in distracting him
• If you are not breastfeeding, you can use a commercially available sucrose solution. Your doctor may recommend this
• Another way to distract your baby is by getting their favorite toy, blanket, or book, to help them focus on something pleasant
• Right before the shot, call your child's name, sing your child's favorite song, tell a story, or just act plain silly to pull your child's attention away from the shot giver
• For children of the age of three & above, relaxation and breathing techniques serve as a distraction during the procedure
• Psychological interventions like music, video games, cartoons, etc. also help to distract children and ease the pain

After the shot, you can calm young infants by swaddling them. Hugs, cuddles, and soft whispers can help soothe the pain. Your child may have mild reactions, such as pain and swelling where the shot was given or even a fever; these are common and will soon go away.

Child vaccination is important, and pain reduction strategies are recommended and effective for both parents and children. In the last 50 years Immunization has delivered excellent results in reducing morbidity and mortality from childhood infections.

(This article is authored by Dr Poonam Sidana, Department of Neonatology & Paediatrics, CK Birla Hospital, Delhi)