Parents…to reduce pain,check this out before your child goes for vaccinations !

“A study that was published in an issue of Pediatrics caught my eye . The title “Cough trick may reduce pain of routine immunizations” seemed relevant to my practice so I decided to preview the study a little early.

The study was performed at The University of Nebraska and involved 68 children (small sample size) and they were all receiving vaccines at either the pre-kindergarten visit (age four to five years) or at the 11 to12-year-old visit when routine immunizations are again given.

In this study the children were all instructed to COUGH while getting their vaccines and then the children as well as their parents and nurses were surveyed to see how painful the procedure seemed. For the kids they used visual scales (pictures of painful faces) to demonstrate degree of pain.

…. the time and cost was NONE as the children were taught to give one BIG cough prior to the injection and then coughed again at the time of injection. What a wonderful discovery! Easy, efficient and no training necessary for staff. In this study it wasn’t clear that it helped all children, and interestingly it seemed to be more effective in certain racial groups than others?

via Can a Little Cough Ease the Pain of a Shot? | The Kid’s Doctor: Your Partner in Parenting.