Pre-School Jabs

On the 28^th January it was time to take Leo for his next set of jabs, his pre-school jabs. I knew the time had been creeping up on us, and having postponed them twice before they called up the day prior to advise us of a cancellation for the next day, and invited us to bring Leo in.

I tried my hardest to explain to Leo that he was going to the doctors for some special medicine to stop him getting poorly. I told him that they would put it into his arms and it may hurt for a minute or so, but that he would be absolutely fine and that I would be there the entire time. This didn’t seem to phase him and off we set for the doctors surgery. Leo had brought his Nintendo DS along and he sat patiently in the waiting room having a race on Mario Kart until his name was called and we were beckoned inside.

The nurse performing the immunisations that day was absolutely lovely, she put us both right at ease. She got down to Leo’s level and explained to him very simply what she was going to do. ‘Now you’re a big boy Leo and will be starting school soon, I need to give you some big boy medicine to help stop you from getting poorly. Is that ok with you?’ Leo who was still engrossed in his Mario Kart game looked up and said yes, and then carried on with what he was doing, completely oblivious to what was about to happen. The nurse turned to me and explained which immunisations Leo would be receiving, asked me to read through the paperwork and sign my consent.

I held onto Leo tightly, placed his game console on the desk beside us and held his arms. We explained to him what was going to happen and that it would all be over very soon, but I guess explaining imminusations is a bit of a grey area because you certainly don’t want to scare them. Leo was still until the first injection went into his left arm, and then the screaming started. Maybe it was the shock of what had happened? Maybe it was the horror that Mummy had gone along with it? Or the overall hurt that he had just experienced. He buried his head in my chest and I was just trying to concentrate on keeping him still. I explained that there was one more that needed to go into his Right arm, and then that would be it, all over and done. Of course now he knew what was coming, he wasn’t exactly accommodating to the idea, so holding him very tightly I assisted the nurse as she put the final vaccination into my beautiful boy.

Leo’s cries rang out, he was a right state. I held him tightly and he kept on repeating ‘Lady hurt me!’ over and over again. The nurse then presented Leo with a certificate of bravery and some stickers for being such a good boy. This did help quiet him down and it wasn’t long before I had my smiley little man back again.

Leo keeps telling me now ‘No more injections Mummy, no doctors. The lady hurt me!’ – God help me the next time I need to take him to the doctors… But for now I have explained that there won’t be any more injections until he is much bigger.

Strangely though these set of injections which I had actually been dreading, weren’t as bad as I first thought. I had convinced myself that they would be awful because of Leo being that much older, but the reality was that yes he got upset, but he got over it all very quickly too, and it meant that we got a cuddly day on the sofa together watching movies and enjoying snuggles.