Hi everyone. My name is Tracy Akitt and I am a child life specialist at McMaster Children's
Hospital in Hamilton. Today joining me I have Charlie and her mom Jenny and they've come here to
enable us to show you what to expect when you go for your vaccine. Just a few quick tips.
Most importantly parents, it's important to ensure your child has something on
that will enable the person who's vaccinating to clearly see the upper part of their arm. So I
would recommend a t-shirt or a tank top underneath their jacket. As soon as you get in the building
take the jacket off and then that way you're not fussing and taking care of that when you
actually sit down with the vaccinator. So all the supplies that I have are all for pretend purposes.
Thank you for coming today, Charlie. Do you mind if we take off your jacket? Perfect. All right,
so Jenny and Charlie are going to show you how one of the position options for receiving the vaccine,
sitting nicely on mom's lap. Mom has her hands around Charlie. Not too aggressively but just
there just to help her hold still because the most important part is holding still.
This enables Charlie to actually look to the other side to watch her show while the vaccinator
is taking care of things here. This is a really nice position particularly if children might be
a little bit anxious. Another option would be if she was to give mom a hug. So in this position,
mom can hug Charlie so that her arm is nicely over top of her daughters. Then the ice can be applied
in this location. Everyone's holding still and again the injection can happen here. So those are
some positioning tips. So Charlie knows that she's here today to receive a pretend vaccine. She's
going to be busy watching her show. One of the things I highly recommend is ice. You can bring
an ice pack from home that you would normally put in a lunch bag. The beauty of ice is that it numbs
the skin not only on the surface but a little bit deeper. Which is so helpful, especially if
people don't like the sensation of an injection. That will actually take 90 percent of it away,
if not all of it. Most youth when I support them in the clinic with using ice, don't even know that
the injection itself has taken place. So we would take the ice and we would apply it. It would sit
against the skin probably the length of time to say the alphabet, is what I would say. We want
to make sure that it's in the right location and is actually numbing the skin. When that's done,
the vaccinator would take the cold white or wet cloth to clean the skin. Would clean and then
wood poke. So that's the process itself and then a band-aid would be put on over top.
Do you want to do one where you watch? We'll show that one. All right, so again
the same process. The ice would be applied. It's nice and cold. It's numbing the skin.
Are you ready for this? The poke part? Okay, we'd get rid of that.
We would clean to take all the germs away and then while you're holding really still - would you like
me to count to three? One. Two. Three. Good job and you see, what a great job Charlie did.
What a great job she did holding still. And that is the most important part is holding still.
Again the intent of the receiving the vaccine is not to trick them but we have to be realistic with
what children can actually handle. This younger age group - sort of five to nine range - in their
mind they know what they need to do. But the ability to regulate those emotions or keep them
under control can be, they're still learning. They're still practicing those skills. One
other tip I'd like to give parents through this process is to realize that your children respond
the way you respond. So if you're you're talking about your fear or concerns about having needles
in front of your child they're going to pick up on that. And it will probably make them anxious or
worried as well. So it's really important to have a positive attitude about going to get the vaccine
and think about who's the best person to take them for the vaccine. If you're afraid of needles,
it might be better to have a friend or a grandparent or someone else bring them to support
them. So that the entire time they feel like everything is very positive. Thank you so much,
Charlie and Jenny for being here today to help us show our friends how easy it can be
to get our immunization! Let's talk about our tips. Wearing the right clothes to make sure we
can have our poke easily. Bringing something we love with us and some distraction to help make it
a little bit easier. Thinking about what positions might be best for both safety and comfort. And
incorporating things like ice or deep breathing to help the child feel relaxed. Thank you!