First impression is the last impression and this is particularly true when you are ready to take your small child for his/her first doctor’s visit. Whether you are taking your child for a routine check-up or for vaccination, how the first meeting goes, play important part in deciding whether your child will be reacting positively/negatively towards future visits to doctor’s clinic or routine check-up.
Most children fear doctors; hence, having a plan in place, to pacify their fears can help you as well as your little one, as children can suddenly become fussy and resistant.
Below are mentioned few tricks to prepare your small child for his/her first visit to doctor’s clinic:
1. Information Is the Key: We all fear unknown and small children are no different. To banish the fear of unknown, take time to explain it to your child what doctors are and what they do for other human beings. Tell your child doctors are smart and intelligent people, who work towards keeping people healthy.
Small children also worry about procedures that could hurt them like vaccination. If you know that you are visiting clinic for vaccination then gently inform your child about it. The news won’t make him/her happy but you will have time to explain that vaccination is necessary to stay immune to various nasty diseases.
2. Answer Your Child’s Questions: After explaining to your child who are doctors and what they do, ask if s/he wants to ask questions regarding what you have explained. There are bound to be questions in your little one’s mind and if s/he decides to share them with you then listen carefully and try to clear the confusions and doubts. Let your child know that you will be by his/her side during the examination.
3. Play Make-Believe: Routine visits to doctor’s clinic, mostly, follow a set pattern and almost everyone except your kid, knows how it will go. Try to inform you child about the visit beforehand by playing make-believe/role-play. Pretend to be a doctor, check his/her temperature and have your kid say “ahhhh”, then reverse roles and allow your kid to be a doctor.
4. Find a Child Friendly Doctor: Lastly, find a doctor, who’s not just qualified but also friendly with little children. Physician’s aloof, detached, critical, uncommunicative and disinterested assessment can offend your kid, making him/her believe that doctor doesn’t like them. Hence, finding a doctor, who’s qualified, competent and can also understand and sympathize with children, is important.
Dos and Don’ts
1. Be ready to be extremely patient with your child even if s/he throws a tantrum at doctor’s clinic. Don’t punish the child as s/he might be acting up due to fear. If you punish him/her for misbehaving then chances are they will start linking punishment with doctor’s clinic.
2. Refrain from presenting doctors in negative light. Don’t scare your child by saying things like “you’ll take him to doctor’s clinic if he misbehaved again.”
3. Also, prepare a list of questions you would like to ask doctor about your child’s condition as even after your best efforts you cannot dictate your kid’s reaction.
The best way to prepare your small children for doctor’s visit is to lead by example. Next time, take your small child along when either you or your older child visit doctor’s clinic for routine check-up. This practice will help in familiarizing your child with clinic and physician, when he/she isn’t sick and hopefully, won’t be creating a scene when it’s his/her turn to visit doctor’s clinic.
Priyanka Sharma
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