Shot@Life: It's Back To School Time

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I can not believe in a little less than one month, not only will my baby turn 11 years old she will be entering 6th grade. I just can not wrap my mind around how much time has flown by! This is a huge deal. This also means that we have a LOT to take care of in the next few weeks to prepare for this new school year! We need to get her new glasses ordered, school clothes shopping, hair cut, dentist and well child check up. Since she is going into sixth grade, she's also due for her meningococcal as part of her required vaccines.

Did you know that you can get back to school immunizations at Walgreens for children ages seven and up? The best part of being able to get your child's back to school shots done at Walgreens is that you are helping get a shot to a child in desperate need in a developing country via the United Nation Foundation’s Shot@Life Campaign. I love that while taking care of something that is readily available here, I am able to help a child in need for a chance at life from diseases that are preventable. Not only that we can get this taken care of, we can also pick up back to school supplies at Walgreens!

Emma has an extensive medical history and due to multiple procedures, doctors, therapies, testing, etc., she has quite a bit of anxiety when she knows it's time to see any of her providers. Now that she is older and she can understand what is going on much more, it's easier to reason with her and explain to her why she needs to see her doctor, why she has to give blood, why she is getting a shot, and whatever else is happening and as long as it's being explained to her what you are doing and to prepare her, she does much better now.

I do a few things to help ease her anxiety and fears about getting a shot.

1. I explain to her WHY it's being done. In this case, since she is getting the meningococcal vaccine this year I will explain to her that it's to help protect her against meningitis.

2. I ask the nurse to explain to her every step of the process- i.e., why they are using a prepad, when they are going to inject and that there will be a bit of pain, and that they are done.

3. She gets to pick something out of our prize box at home for doing a great job and for being brave (which is full of items we got from Walgreens!)