Today@Dal

From the February issue of Today's Parent magazine:

It all started when Élyse was two years old. While on vacation in the US, her parents, Shawna and Justin Clouthier of Peterborough, Ont., took her to a hospital because they thought she had ingested some of her grandmother’s medication. Blood work had to be done, but the nurse couldn’t find a vein.

With each poke of the needle, Élyse would cry. Each time the nurse failed to find a vein, she would leave the room, waiting for the toddler to calm down. But as the ordeal dragged on, Élyse grew increasingly distressed, crying and fighting with each attempt until the nurse finally found a vein.

Now, four years later, Élyse’s fear of needles is so bad that her father has to hold her in a bear hug in order for her to get a shot. “Every time we have a flu shot, it turns into a fiasco,” says Shawna. “Élyse is a calm little kid, but she goes completely berserk. It’s sad and scary. And unfortunately it keeps happening.” Worse: Her younger sister, Gisèle, thinks she, too, should be scared of needles, and is terrified of her upcoming fifth birthday because it means she’ll have a round of immunizations.

If there ever was a textbook case of needle phobia, this would be it. While there may be a biological predisposition to be afraid of certain things—like the pain associated with needles—most people acquire their phobias. Fears and phobias can stem from a traumatic childhood experience, says Christine Chambers, a child psychologist and professor of paediatrics at Dalhousie University in Halifax. “I’ve worked with hundreds of children and adults with significant fears. Almost all of these individuals can trace their fears back to one poorly managed procedure as a child,” says Chambers.

Read the rest of this article online.