Ten Shots

Ever since we had a round of flu and Covid shots last year, my 5 year old daughter has been afraid of getting shots. I unfortunately made the decision back then that she would get her shot after my 4 year old son. I think the waiting freaked her out and because it was worried about it, it ended up making the shot more painful and she tensed up her legs as the shot went in. This was all after watching my son just get a shot and he said ouch when the needle went in (and that was it). I think since my daughter understands more, it really got to her that the shot was coming up.

A few nights ago, she wanted read a book called The Little Ouch about a girl who needs to get a shot. The little girl freaks out and tries to get away from the shot, but (spoiler alert) ultimately gets dragged back to get her shot. The nurse asks the little girl to tell a story and while distracted, the girl didn’t notice the shot was done. Throughout the book, my son was saying how he only says ouch for shots and that he wants more shots. Ten shots. He understands that shots make your body stronger because of the vaccines in them and that it needs to go into your body instead of just eating them like other kinds medicine. Even though my daughter understand this and also knows that we will go get ice cream after the shot, she hates them (like I did as a kid).

The more my son said he wanted shots (and maybe he wanted ice cream too), my daughter was getting more anxious and a bit upset. She didn’t want to talk about anything and just wanted me to read the book. I told her that it’s fine to be scared of shots, but it’s just a second of actual pain to prevent us from feeling worse if we end up getting sick. Plus ice cream…can’t forget about that part. She still felt anxious, so we quickly finished the book and she fell asleep.

Even though the next shot is a few months away, I hope she doesn’t get scared thinking about it each week. I also hope that she will figure it out and just get the shot like she used to do (because she didn’t cry the time before and cried only a bit the other times). When we all woke up in the morning, my son said he wanted a hundred shots. Can’t beat that comedic timing.