Interesting Nurse Visit

Jenna went to get her 18 months old needles today - she got her H1N1 shot in November and the booster in December... the first need made a mess of her arm - first it swelled for over a week - about the size of a toonie, then it bruised and stayed bruised for a little over a month. They said it wasn't a reaction (as that happens immediately) but merely trauma to her arm from the needle.

Anyhoo ever since she had the shot she has been freaking out about getting her clothes off for a bath or for her PJs (complete meltdown - screaming, crying, kicking, wiggling) and when we go somewhere and take her coat and hat off she loses it. She won't let her coat/hat out of her sight and carries them around with her.... or if she takes off her sweatshirt she drags it around the house with her all day. We just figured it was a stage and chose to pick other battles that we felt were more important.

We were telling the nurse about the situation and she said after the swelling and bruised arm for so long she may very well be scared to take her clothes off - kind of all makes sense now (not sure why that didn't cross my mind) but it sure makes me feel bad for her if that is the reason. Terrified to take her clothes off for fear she is going to get another needle that makes her arm hurt for over a month...

If only she was a little older and I could somehow make her understand it was a one time thing... what a crummy feeling when you may have slightly traumatized your child all the while trying to keep them safe....

Poor little Jenna. Don't knock yourself out over being a good parent and attempting to keep her safe. You certainly never intended the orginal shot to cause the issues they appear to have. A similar situation arose when our little grandson had to have surgery at 9 months. After the surgery he would fight sleep like crazy and the nurses concluded that he must have been so afraid when he woke up with all of his tubes etc that he rationalized that it would happen every time he would fall asleep. They had a month of him being purely miserable but he finally outgrew the phase. Hopefully Jenna will do the same.

Poor little jenna, hope she is soon back to her usual self !! it does make you feel so bad when they are hurting .........

Poor baby.. kind of makes you teary.. hugs to her for me.. tell big sista to try and explain it to her.. she may understand Brittany.. worth a try..

Poor Jenna! It makes sense now that you've explained it. Kids seems to be logical on a very basic sense (I mean they don't complicate things like we do!). Just remember that "this too shall pass". That's what I always tell myself when Kayla goes through something that just doesn't make any sense to me - and sure enough it does. You just feel so darned bad for the little sausages when they suffer ...