Friday, October 30, 2009

No More Shots

In the last 6 months I have discovered a new phenomena with Lauren. In July we took her for her 4 year old well check. She got the usual vaccinations. About 30 minutes after we got home she appeared rather pale and green. I laid her down and gave her something to eat and after an hour or so she was back to normal.

A month ago I took her with me to get Noble's shots for his 4 month vaccinations. She and I were playing for a long time in the doctors office. She was excited to see Noble get his shots. After he did and as I was putting him in his car seat she walked out of the office and back to the front. I ran out after her as soon as I got Noble in his seat. She was walking funny like a drunk person and running into things. When I caught up to her she was crying a bit and saying she wanted to go home.

I wondered what was wrong with her? Did she suddenly get tired? By the time we got to the car she was as white as a ghost again -- no color to the lips. I had her lay down in the car and eat a pretzel. She perked up quickly and we were on our way. She told me that she didn't like seeing Noble get his shots because it made her "blind."

Yesterday, while I was feeding Noble breakfast we had Sid the Science Kid on the television. It was a show on getting flu shots. They skipped to a segment showing kids getting shots. Suddenly, Lauren started crying and hiding her face and telling me to turn off the show. I did quickly as I remembered her previous reactions.

I kept trying to get her to show me her face. When she finally did it was rather pale. Then her face got that dreaded look. I lunged to her and pulled her face around to be over the tile instead of the carpet and, as I feared, she lost her breakfast.

I got her in the tub and clean both of us up and she felt much better. She told me she didn't want to watch that show anymore. She said "I don't like shots. Shots make me puke." By the end of her bath she was back to her normal giggly bubbly self.

I am going to have to be more careful, I suppose. I am not sure why this fear or fainting at the sight of shots has come on. She has been with me when I have gone to get my blood drawn when I was pregnant.

Has anyone else out there dealt with this? And if so, how do you deal with it when you do actually have to get a shot or see someone get a shot. Right now this seems like a "quirk" to me. But down the road I can see how this could be a rather big hinderance in your life to not be able to get or see someone else get a shot without fainting or becoming sick.