Health is wealth, and when it comes to your little ones, you need more than just time and money to spend. You also need a bit of patience. After all, getting your kids to visit the doctor regularly is not such a hassle for you. But for your kids, well, it’s more like the scariest experience they can have.
Your role as a parent is to secure your children’s health. Apart from planning healthy meals, you will also have to bring them to a pediatrician who can check your kids for any underlying conditions. This is important as you need to keep your child healthy throughout the development process. Then again, it’s a big headache if your child refuses to go.
While not all kids are scared of the doctor, there are some who take this fear to the extreme. Indeed, if left untreated, this fear will open up a whole host of problems for you as the parent, as well as for your child.
That being said, it’s crucial for parents to address this fear and make sure it doesn’t interfere with the child’s psycho-social and, more importantly, physical development later on.
It’s important for parents to keep this fear of the doctor in check. Let’s look at a few key tips that should help your kids overcome their reluctance to visit the doctor.
- Find the right professional
When it comes to easing your child’s fears, your best bet would be a pediatrician who is actually capable of handling toddlers. You can be an expert on child nutrition and other aspects of pediatric care, but it takes talent to actually be accommodating to kids.
In this case, you may need to search high and low for the right pediatric clinics in your neighborhood. You can go the easier way by asking for recommendations from friends and colleagues. If they can tell you the positive experiences they have had with their doctor, then you might want to ask for contact details.
You can also do a quick search through Google by adding location tags to your search queries. If you’re looking for a new doctor for your child, you can do a search for “pediatricians near me” and add the name of your city to the search. Be as specific as you can with your choice of keywords for the best results.
- Give a brief “orientation”
Surely, much of the fear that overwhelms your child is due to a feeling of uncertainty. Indeed, this feeling creates unease in your child, so the best possible way to solve this is to give your child a good idea of what to expect during a visit to the doctor.
It’s important, to be honest with your child about the procedures that are going to happen. So, weeks before your first visit to the doctor, you should be able to discuss with your child about the importance of going to the doctor and the things the doctor will do to keep your child healthy.
- Be supportive and provide comfort
If your child still feels uneasy, you may want to reassure your child that everything is going to be alright. Going to the doctor can be a very uncomfortable experience, so it helps if you’re there to motivate your little one.
Sure enough, nothing can comfort a child more than a parent who’s always there to provide emotional backup. For this, hugging your child or caressing his or her back during a checkup can help alleviate the feeling of anxiety. You also need to give words of encouragement and support along the lines of “Don’t worry, Mom’s here” or “You can do this, champ” or “You’re strong and brave!”
- Avoid taunting your child
Your child is already scared every time he or she hears the words “doctor”. That being said, it doesn’t help to taunt your child about the horrors of going to the doctor, even if you’re doing it in jest! This would give your child all the more reason not to trust you, especially when it comes to receiving important inoculation.
Indeed, nothing can scare a child more than a syringe. But to joke about getting injected as a disciplinary tactic is never a good practice. Instead of emphasizing the negative part of receiving a vaccination, you can simply tell your child that it’s a harmless procedure that doesn’t take too long. This will help you mentally prepare your child to receive the shot. One thing’s for sure, once your child gets injected, the fear dissipates and you won’t have to worry about your subsequent visits to the pediatrician.
