According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), immunization is the proven safe method to protect babies from more than 14 serious childhood diseases (1).
Considering the fact that vaccines benefits outweigh the minor trouble including pain, you should always recommend vaccination and give parents some advice to reduce the discomfort after vaccination in infants.
In this post, we will discuss the possible side effects of vaccination, and tips to deal with pain.
Pain is a common after-effect of vaccination. Minimizing pain can help make vaccination less intimidating and stressful both for the infant and the parents. Babies exhibit lesser fear of needles and fewer healthcare avoidance behaviors on growing up when the pain from vaccination was managed better (2).
The following are some suggested tips to manage the pain after vaccination in infants.
1. Give some quiet time
The baby might be irritated and exhausted due to crying after the vaccine. Put the baby in a comfortable, temperature-controlled, and quiet room. Dress them in loose, comfortable, breathable clothes.
2. Hold the baby
3. Touch and soothe the baby
A study on determining the effective physical interventions to reduce pain after vaccination proved the “5 S” to be relaxing to the baby (4). The “5 S” are swaddling, side/stomach position shushing swinging and sucking.
3. Touch and soothe the baby
A study on determining the effective physical interventions to reduce pain after vaccination proved the “5 S” to be relaxing to the baby (4). The “5 S” are swaddling, side/stomach position shushing swinging and sucking.
