Deciding The Best Vaccination For Your Child: Painless or Painful Vaccine?

One of the most significant inventions of science has been the ability to save infant lives from potentially fatal diseases through vaccination. These life-saving vaccines are administered to children starting right at birth up to 10 years of age. The importance of vaccines for children is recognized beyond any shadow of doubt as they help build immunity and give them a healthy start in life.

Having said that, children do have a phobia of needles, which when coupled with the pain and discomfort experienced during vaccination can make them reluctant at the mention of needles. Painful vaccines may distraught children but are a blessing in the face of life-threatening diseases.

Also, a mother’s natural instinct is to protect the baby from any perceivable harm, so when their babies cry during vaccination mothers can’t help but lose their composure as well. As babies are more sensitive to painful stimuli, the discomfort associated with vaccinations can make them more vulnerable to further immunization. According to parents, the subsequent reactions like fever, long durations of crying, and local pain and swelling experienced at the injection site are the biggest drawbacks of immunization.

Therefore, many parents found relief when a breakthrough was achieved in the form of painless vaccines. Since then, there has been a lot of debate and comparison between the traditional painful vaccine and its painless counterpart. We will endeavour to uncover the truth about administering painless vaccines for children so that all your doubts pertaining to it are addressed.

Now that the fundamental differenceinthese two types of vaccinesareclear to you, your decision is going to be an informed one. For mothers, who approach the imperative vaccination schedules with dread, these top 3 tested methods will help make your trip to the paediatrician a smooth sailing one.

• A numbing agent: A pint-sized amount of the over-the-counter cream Lidocaine 4% can be applied to the area where the baby is to be injected (like the upper arms, thighs, or buttocks). Leave it for 30-60 minutes prior to vaccination, and the effect will last for 1 hour where your baby will not feel the prickling sensation of the needle. Care should be taken that under no circumstance the cream is kept for more than 2 hours.
  
  
• Distraction: Using a temporary form of distraction like singing to your child, engaging them in a conversation, or making silly faces can go a long way. Even handing them their favourite toy or rhyme book will keep them distracted long enough not to be affected by the needle.
  
  
• Feeding: Breastfeeding your baby, if you are comfortable with it, at the time of being immunized can make them feel secure and calm them down drastically. Alternatively, sugar syrup can be smeared on the baby’s pacifier, the sucrose in the syrup will activate the pain relievers in the brain, thus alleviating the pain caused by injections.

Conclusion

Parents need to make tough decisions for their kids throughout their lives, and the choice of vaccination is one of the most crucial ones as it can have a lasting effect on your child’s health. Even in testing situations like that of vaccinations mothers can see the bigger picture, and it is worth the effort when your baby is healthy and making the most of his life.

We always appreciate your feedback and suggestions as it helps us grow and by sharing your personal experiences with vaccines for children, you can help someone in a similar situation.