Magic Tricks for Needle Sticks - Tactile Distraction

Touch distraction, a form of pain distraction, is a wonderful alternative to medicine for natural pain relief. Decrease needle pain using your own nervous system!

When you bump your knee, rubbing it relieves the pain. When you burn your hand, shaking it or running it under cold water decreases the pain. These methods use something scientists call the "gate theory" – slower nerve sensations of temperature or vibration "shut the gate" on the faster sharp pain sensations.

There are several way to trick your skin so it doesn't feel the sharpness of a needle. Buzzy^® works because the design maximally stimulates vibration and cold receptors. There are other techniques you use, alone or with Buzzy^®, that can also help.

STRETCH:

• The World Health Organization recommends stretching the skin where a shot is going to go in. Sometimes nurses will pinch and bunch up the muscle where a vaccine will go, which also has the effect of stretching the skin a little. MMJ Labs has discovered that stretching the skin just above the injection site works even better. Take two fingers, put them about one centimeter closer to the head than the shot goes, and stretch about two centimeters apart.

GIVE A HAND:

• Sending other information from the hand on the arm where the shot is going in can help decrease the amount of attention the brain pays to the shot. (Some of these ideas won't work for starting an IV, because they may get in the way of the nurse).

• Wiggle, rub, or snap the fingers together on the hand that's getting the immunization. The needle pain is balanced by the normal sensations and focus of the task.

• Play a game or do a task with the hand (for example, "tap each finger to the thumb three times")

• Hold an ice cube in the hand. The natural pain relief of cold is transmitted to the same nerves with the needle pain.

• Squeeze something textured; an example is a "Needle Beetle" invented by a kid!

PINCH OF SUGAR:

• Give a few little pinches in the area where the shot will go seconds before the nurse swabs and sticks. This decreases the sensitivity in the area. Better yet, let your child drink a cold swig of something sweet, to increase lots of other sensations.

FOR NURSES: GO DEEP!

• The deeper a shot goes in and the more slowly the fluid is put in, the less the shot hurts. There are fewer nerve endings the deeper into muscle you go.

Focus Pain Distraction is another especially useful technique to use with children.