How to explain vaccines to kids
Like most kids, my daughter has always been full of questions. Why is the sky blue? Why do I have to brush my teeth? Why do cats purr? She’s a smart cookie, and at an early age she realised that whenever I didn’t know the answer to something, I would suggest we look it up together. It soon became her favourite delay tactic at bed time.
When she was 4, we were sitting in our doctor’s waiting room and she asked why we were there.
She knew she wasn’t sick. ‘‘Are you sick?’’ she asked with a look of concern on her face. No, I wasn’t sick. We were there to get her the MMR vaccine.
And then the questions started. What’s a vaccine? Why do I have to have it? Will it hurt? As we waited, I explained that she was going to get an injection.
Yes, it would hurt, but only a little, like a pinprick.
That she might feel a little hot and tired for a few days, but that I would look after her.
I explained that the injection was to prepare her body so that if it met the nasty microbes that cause measles, mumps and rubella, she could fight them off without her even knowing.
She asked what would happen if she didn’t get the ‘‘prickly’’.
I explained that if she caught one of those nasty microbes, she might get really sick.
Would she die, she asked. I didn’t think so, I told her.
But she might spread those nasty microbes to a young baby, or someone who was already sick, and they could end up in the hospital or die.
I explained to her that caring about others meant that we got our ‘‘pricklies’’ to make a big safe blanket to protect all the people who couldn’t get a prickly.
For days afterwards, she proudly showed her plaster to everyone she met, telling them about the blanket and explaining herd immunity.
The NZ Skeptics has just launched The Force Field Film Challenge, asking our primary and intermediate students to explain vaccination and herd immunity in under three minutes.
I can’t wait to see what our kids come up with.
Caring about others meant that we got our ‘‘pricklies’’ to make a big safe blanket to protect all the people who couldn’t get a prickly.