Spin Doctor

Getting your kids to eat vegetables is mostly how you spin it. Last week my kids had their annual checkups. It’s not that big of a deal for my oldest kids, but my youngest doesn’t particularly care for the doctor, or the doctor’s office, or the doctor’s parking lot. Last fall, when she was about 2.5 years old, we went for flu shots. As soon as we got to the parking lot, she asked if we could go home. I thought that was unusual, and then figured out that she must remember when she was there at her 2 year old appointment and got a shot. She kept her hysteria under control until they called our name and started begging me to take her home rather than to the room. Needless to say, she got her flu shot. Then a month later we needed to go back for her 2.5 year old check up. She was so scared she started screaming as soon as we got to the examination room (yes that was us next to you). She wouldn’t let me take off her clothes. The nurse and the doctor just did the exam with her fully clothed while she screamed the whole entire time.

Fast forward 6 months, I thought there has got to be something I can do to make this check up go smoother. So I thought I would try a little “dinosaur leaves” methodology. My daughter loves super heroes and was super girl for Halloween. So I explained to her that she was going to the doctor and would get a shot. Then I asked her if she could be super girl because super girl is brave and tough. Every night we talked about the doctor’s appointment and how she’d be super girl. The shot will still hurt, but she will be brave.

At the appointment, she was great. She still wanted her brother and sister to go first, but there was no screaming. She let the doctor examine her. She got weighed. When the shot came, she was nervous, but again no screaming. She did cry when she got the shot, but I easily comforted her. She was all smiles by time she got the “treasure” from the treasure chest.

Wow, that was so much easier than the last time. It reinforced for me that it is all how you position the task at hand. If it is going to the doctor or eating vegetables, it is all how you spin it.