How To Make Your Kid’s Doctor Appointments Easier For Them

As a working mom, I know firsthand how challenging it can be to juggle our busy schedules with our children’s health needs. And let’s face it, most kids don’t look forward to doctor appointments. The thought of getting poked with needles or having to sit still for long periods of time can be overwhelming for them. That’s why I’m excited to share some tips on how to make your kid’s doctor appointments easier for them. By implementing these strategies, you can help your child feel more comfortable and relaxed during their visit, while also ensuring that they receive the best possible care. Join me as I dive into some practical ways to make doctor appointments a breeze, both for you and your little ones!

Going to a doctor is one of the kid’s worst nightmares, and depending on their history with doctors, it could be worse for some than for others. Whether you are just going for a regular check-up or if your kid is sick, there are some ways you can make the whole process easier for a kid.

A doctor’s appointment is challenging not only for kids but for parents as well. As a parent, you get worried when your kid is still young and have to hide it to support your kid during the appointment emotionally. At different ages, you can face different challenges, and as counterintuitive as it sounds, when kids are a bit older, their appointments get more challenging. That is because they develop certain fears around doctor visits the more the higher their level of comprehension.

Here are some tips to make a doctor’s appointment easier for kids:

Choose the doctor wisely

When it comes to an appointment for kids, you want to make sure that you go to a doctor that knows how to deal with kids and their anxieties, not someone who just wants to get the job done. An ideal doctor is one who gets excited for their patient–someone who makes them feel like they want to talk to them and get to know them.

As a parent, your role would be to follow the doctor’s lead. For instance, if the doctor says that the child is getting taller or is healthy, you have to act very excited and congratulate the child for how well they are doing. By making the appointment positive and exciting, you can get your kid to love the appointments rather than dread them. You can even choose a practice that offers doctor dispensing in their office so that you don’t have to make errands afterward to avoid stressing them out.

Create a list with them

To make your kid feel more involved, create a list with them. Tell your kid that both of you will create a list together that includes things to ask the doctor during the appointment—things that you are worried about.

Make sure to keep the conversation breezy and lighthearted when making the list, you don’t want to make it too serious that they get worried or too playful that they don’t feel like they are doing something important. Kids want to feel like they are involved, and by involving them in the process they feel responsible and that they need to go to ask the questions they wrote down.

Get to the appointment at a time that suits them

You know your kid better than anyone, and according to this you will set the arrival time. If you know that your kid is very worried about the appointment, not having enough time before the appointment and rushing things will most likely make them more anxious. Try to make it more relaxing by not having things to do before the appointment and by arriving there a bit early. Give yourself and your kid some free time beforehand so they can relax, and that you can fill out any paperwork needed or talk to the doctor.

And this works the other way, if you arrive too early, your kid might stay too worried for long and the worry builds up, so it’s best to arrive at a time that leaves some time to relax but not too much that they start overthinking it.

Don’t try to invalidate their feelings

Kids are scared of doctor appointments, and so are adults. That is a fact that you don’t want to invalidate. They will be worried, and your role is to soothe them, not to invalidate their feelings. You can do so by validating their feelings. You want to ask them things like. “Are you afraid to go there? What makes you think it is worrying? You would rather stay at home, right?” They will most probably reply with “yes” to all of these questions.

You want to pause and tell them that you know how they feel and that it is normal to feel like this when visiting the doctor, but when you finish the appointment bravely, you can go with them to someplace they like or buy the food they like. Be careful not to talk too much or it will make them nervous–simply validate their feelings and tell them that you are getting a treat after the appointment. It could be something they wanted for a long time like a toy’s new edition.

Use a scale to let them tell you about their pain

In the medical field, it is normal to use a number scale to assess the level of pain of patients, even for adults. This is beneficial for kids because it makes them feel like they can communicate their pain. Ask them what number they think their pain will be on, and then let them know that the pain will be maybe a 1 or 2; don’t tell them it will be a zero, kids will know you are lying to them. When they have a number in mind, it keeps them from excessively worrying because they know what to expect.

Tell them that everyone has to do things that they would rather not do

We all know that going to a doctor’s appointment is not a fun thing to do at all and that no matter how much fun you try to make it, it just won’t be. However, it is something you need to be done to take care of yourself and your health–remind your child of that.

Don’t try to make it seem like a big deal, but explain to them that whether as kids or adults, you have to do things you don’t want to do for your own good, like going to work or going to a doctor’s appointment. Tell them that to be responsible, you have to do things like this, not just things you enjoy doing.