How to ease vaccine pain
The next time you bring your needle-phobic youngster in for a vaccine, try the “cough trick.” Researchers have found that some children who cough precisely when the needle is jabbed into the arm feel less pain than when they don’t cough, according to research published in the February issue of the journal Pediatrics.
If you’ve ever been in a pediatrician’s office, you know that immunizations bring on deafening howls and cries. Over the years, doctors have tried using television, virtual reality goggles, bubble or pinwheel blowing, and medicine to anesthetize the skin.
But most of the other methods require extra cost, time and effort, said lead researcher Dustin Wallace, a pediatric psychology fellow at the Mayo Clinic.
In the study, the children, ages 4 to 5 and 11 to 13, received two shots. After a practice cough, they were asked to cough again during either their first or second jab. Though the children moved when they coughed, it didn’t affect the needle insertion because nurses had a broad area to work with, Wallace said.
Initially, the cough trick didn’t seem to work. But when Wallace and his team broke down the data by race, the results showed it was effective for white and Hispanic children. Coughing had little effect for African-American children, perhaps because the nurses were white or Hispanic, Wallace said.
“It’s possible children are less likely to trust someone who looks different, but it’s something I hope will be looked at more.”