10 Ways to Ease Your Baby’s Vaccination Pain
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Many new parents wonder how to soothe a newborn during baby shots. Before their second birthday, babies may be poked with a needle up to 20 times during vaccinations. These shots protect children from dreaded diseases that used to be common, says Ken Haller, MD, associate professor of pediatrics at Saint Louis University in Missouri. Nonetheless, the vaccination pain can be upsetting for you and your child.
According to the Mayo Clinic, childhood vaccines protect children from a variety of serious or potentially fatal diseases. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends the following immunizations until age 18 (subject to individual risk factors):
- Chickenpox
- COVID-19
- Diphtheria
- Haemophilius influenzae type b (Hib)
- Hepatitis A
- Hepatitis B
- Human Papillomavirus (HPV)
- Measles
- Meningococcal
- Mumps
- Pneumococcal conjugate
- Polio
- Rotavirus
- Rubella
- Seasonal influenza (flu)
- Smallpox
- Tetanus
- Tuberculosis
- Whooping cough (pertussis)
These vaccines contain an inactivated (killed) agent or a weakened live organism and help babies to develop antibodies for protection against specific infections.
While babies get some disease protection from their mothers, this only lasts until they’re around 6 months old. Baby shots are given early because children are at high risk for serious diseases at a young age. Diseases like measles and chickenpox are life-threatening for infants and young children. This makes early vaccination — sometimes beginning shortly after birth — essential. If you postpone vaccines until a child is older, it might be too late to offer good protection.
Many parents worry about baby shots and fever after vaccines. Some believe there is a link between ingredients in vaccines and autism, but research has found no such link, according to the CDC. Ever since vaccinations were developed, there have been risks, including the risk of developing the disease or serious side effects. But most vaccine side effects are very mild and severe ones are rare. The use of childhood vaccinations has essentially ended a number of childhood diseases that otherwise resulted in hospitalization or death.
Failure to get babies vaccinated can result in new epidemics of diseases that can be harmful — even deadly. As an example, before the measles vaccine, 3 to 4 million people in the United States got measles each year, 48,000 were hospitalized, and 400 to 500 died annually. Diphtheria was one of the most common childhood causes of death in school age children. About 4 million people got chickenpox each year in the United States, over 10,500 of those people were hospitalized, and about 100 to 150 people died. And pertussis, or whooping cough, an illness that makes it difficult to breathe, killed 8,000 people annually before the vaccine was developed.
While baby shots are proven to protect children against diseases, there are also confirmed ways to soothe a newborn or baby and ease their pain after vaccinations. Here are some shot soothers that work best:
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