Why Vaccination Day Is the Saddest Day

One of the saddest things you will do as a dad is hold your babies down while they get a shot at the doctor’s office.

Hopefully you are helping your wife out and going to the doctor with her and the twins for their well baby checkups.

If so, you will be called upon to do a necessary–albeit truly saddening–task.

Your twin babies will need vaccination shots at nearly every well baby checkup you go to.

During these visits, the nurse will have you hold your baby down while they poke the needles (often for multiple vaccinations) into your babies’ thighs.

If you have any love in your heart for your babies, this job will not make you a happy daddy.

The simple act of holding your baby down will undoubtedly cause them to cry and start to wiggle. Even if you can keep them happy, the needle poke will turn on the tears.

Your baby will go wide-eyed as she realizes that she just got poked. After a second pause, the cry/scream will emerge from her wide open mouth and her eyes will start to tear up. She may even stop breathing.

Yes dad, you get to watch this not-so-joyful sequence of events as the nurse repeatedly pokes your baby’s legs. And you get to watch not just once, but twice (unless your wife has mercy on you and takes a turn holding down the other twin).

To add to the misery, your baby is looking right at you. Your face. Your eyes.

So when your baby feels that intense pain from the shot, she is looking right at you.

You’ll hope that she doesn’t associate the poke, the pain, the suffering with you.

As your twins get older, they will realize what this process is all about and will start to hate the nurse, not you. But in that first year, you need to be ready.

So be a dad: don’t abdicate this responsibility. Help your twins get their vaccinations. And then hold them and calm them after the fact. Just don’t think about it too much.

Picture by Nate Davis