Tips For Surviving Baby's First Injections

Elise has now had her first set of injections (8 weeks, 12 weeks and 16 weeks). On the day of her first set of injections, I tweeted about how I I couldn’t quite believe how quickly they’d arrived. The responses I got surprised me. My tweet was mean as a ‘she’s growing up so quickly, that time has flown by!’ But you’d think I’d tweeted ‘how am I going to cope!?’ by some of the responses I received. I didn’t understand the reason why, until the nurse praised me for how level headed I was about it all. We saw the same nurse for each set of injections, and at each appointment she praised how I handled it. So, I thought it put together my tips for surviving baby’s first injections (and all those that follow).

Elise and me less than an hour after her first injections at 8 weeks old.

Surviving Baby’s First Injections: Self Care

As a new parent, one of the first things that goes out of the window seems to be self care. But, your well-being is directly linked to your baby’s well-being. Whether it be the night before, or the morning of your baby’s injections, taking some time to do something you enjoy. Being more relaxed will not only help you, it will help your baby cope too.

Surviving Baby’s First Injections: Leave The House In Plenty Of Time

There’s only one thing worse than when you’re just about to leave the house and your baby decides they’re hungry or they have an unfortunate explosion, requiring a change of clothes for you both. And that is when it happens and causes you to be late. To combat this, I like to leave the house at least 30 minutes before I need to. This allows time for feeding, changing and anything else that might occur, either before we set out of the house, or en route. For me, this reduces stress. I’m much happier arriving somewhere early and amusing Elise for a bit, than getting stressed because we’re going to be late.

Surviving Baby’s First Injections: Discuss Any Additional Needs BEFORE The Injections

As a wheelchair user, I need to wear Elise to move with her. To do this, she needs to be somewhat co-operative – something that no baby is going to be after just being stabbed in the leg by a stranger.

So, before Elise had her first injections, I discussed this with the nurse. I asked her if she would mind either pushing me into the waiting room while I held Elise, or bringing her out to the waiting room for me. The nurse did one better and put us in a side room, telling me to take all the time we needed. We’ve had the same nurse for each of Elise’s injections and she’s made sure there’s an available room for us each time. This has made things much easier for me.

It’s much easier to have a conversation about additional needs before a baby’s injections, rather than trying to be heard over their crying. The latter is always going to be stressful!

Surviving Baby’s First Injections: Have Milk At The Ready

Whether breast, bottle or combination fed, milk isn’t just about sustenance. It’s about love and caring too. Having some milk ready for your baby will help them settle and distract them from the pain that the needle has caused.

Surviving Baby’s First Injections: Babywearing

Babywearing is an amazing tool in so many ways, one of which is to keep baby close and help them feel safe. And when would they need this more than when they’re in pain, scared and confused!? Being close to a parent comforts and reassures a baby. If you’re able to get some skin-to-skin going on too (low cut top time!), even better!

Skin-to-skin, being able to hear your heartbeat and the way a sling mimics the feeling of being in the womb, all help to sooth a fractious baby. After each of her injections, Elise had a cuddle and some milk and then fell asleep for a few hours in a wrap.

Surviving Baby’s First Injections: Remember That It’s A Normal Response

No one wants to hear their baby crying. But an important thing to remember with injections is that it’s a normal reaction for a baby to cry when they’re in pain. It would be much more concerning if a baby didn’t cry! Viewing crying (in the context of having injections) as a good thing, can help keep you calm. This will allow you to more effectively console your baby and they’ll settle quicker as a result.

Surviving Baby’s First Injections: You Have To Be Cruel To Be Kind

Still having difficulty with the thought of your baby having their first injections? Thinking about the alternative may be beneficial. Injections are a short lived amount of pain and, while some babies experience a difficult few days afterwards, this is nothing in comparison to getting one of the conditions that they’re being immunised agains. Injections reduce the chance of individuals getting some nasty illnesses. For those unfortunate enough to be immunised and still get ill, the injections reduce the severity and chance of serious, lifelong problems. So while it’s not pleasant, it’s better than watching your baby fighting meningitis, for example.