My one-year-old had her “12-Month Physical” with her pediatrician today.  I had called the pediatrician office prior the appointment to gauge how bad this appointment would be in terms of vaccinations, and I was told she would be getting four shots.  Just like every other time that my daughter has had shots, I had a diaper-bag full of items to distract my little toddler (toys, puffs, iPhone Elmo Videos) from the pain of the needles.  At her 9-month vaccination appointment, my daughter didn’t even flinch because I pulled out her very first Cabbage Patch doll, “DoDo,” at the exact moment that the shot went into her skin, and she was too excited to even notice the needle!  

But the 12-month appointment was dramatically different.  This time, the shots were injected into her arm (all previous shots were injected into her leg).  Apparently, squirming babies make administering arm injections a lot more difficult for the nurses.  The nurse that administered the vaccinations made me hold my daughter on my lap, straitjacket style, as my poor baby had her finger pricked and squeezed for a blood sample (which took three LONG minutes consisting of my baby screaming and squealing in horror) and then for the four additional vaccines that were administered in her arms.  The entire process took about 7 minutes, but these were the worst 7-minutes I’ve ever experienced. My daughter was screaming and crying like I have never, ever, heard before, and I had to hold myself back from sobbing.  I couldn’t take her mind off of the pain, because not only were my hands tied from holding her arms down, but I couldn’t even see her face because she was facing away from me on my lap.   It was such a sad, powerless feeling.  There is a better way to do this.