Curbing needle phobia in adults starts with making shots less painful for kids

Life Kit: Parenting

NPR

Kids & Family

4.4 • 634 Ratings

🗓️ 29 April 2024

⏱️ 14 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Approximately one in four adults has a fear of needles, according to the CDC. Many of those people say the phobia started when they were kids. Researchers developed a five step plan to prevent what they call "needless pain" for kids getting injections or their blood drawn. NPR's Short Wave talks with Dr. Stefan Friedrichsdorf of UCSF Benioff Children's Hospitals, who works with a team to implement the plan at his own hospital, about how to eliminate pain during shots.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Support for NPR and the following message comes from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
0:05.4	RWJF is a national philanthropy working toward a future where health is no longer a privilege but a right.
0:12.1	Learn more at RWJF.org.
0:15.4	You're listening to LifeKit from NPR.
0:19.9	Hey everybody, it's Mariel.
0:22.4	I'm just popping in for a minute here,
0:24.1	because today you're going to hear from our friends over at NPR Science Podcast Shortwave.
0:28.6	They did this great episode recently about shots, the kind you get at the doctor's office.
0:33.1	They're scary for a lot of people, especially for kids.
0:36.2	But there are things your doctor's office can do
0:38.2	and things you can ask for to make it easier. Here's the episode. Hey, short waivers, I'm Tom Dreisbach.
0:45.7	Now, normally I'm an investigative reporter here at NPR News digging into secrets and things
0:50.6	no one knows about. But today, I'm here to talk about something almost all of us
0:55.6	have gone through at one point in our lives. Going to the doctor's office and getting your shots.
1:01.0	Now, for a lot of folks, it's not a big problem. You know what the nurses sometimes say. It's like
1:05.5	a little pinch and you're done. And for little kids, do they even remember the pain anyway?
1:10.4	Well, Stefan Friedrichstoff saysorf says, yeah, he remembers.
1:14.6	Stefan grew up in Germany, and he remembers this one time when he was nine years old.
1:19.2	He had to go to the doctor for an infected nail.
1:22.0	Two surgeons were holding me down, and I was screaming at the top of my head when the one surgeon sat to the other. Do you think
1:28.8	he can feel any pain? And the guy said no. And may they burn in hell? That happened more than 40 years ago,
1:38.9	but that traumatic doctor's visit has really stuck with him. Now, Stefan Friedrichstorff is a doctor himself,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.