My mother has become, in her later years, a “well idk if they definitely cause autism but I did vaccinate all of you and I do have a kid with autism…” which like. whatever. I’ve been over talking to them for a while now anyway.

But when I was younger and getting vaccinated she always said,“you’re gonna look at the wall in the other direction, it’s gonna hurt for a few seconds then it’ll be over and there’s an ice cream place next door.” And I have almost 0 medical anxiety, like I’ll let new grads I’m precepting practice on me before I let them stick a real patient.

vs I remember when I was a swimming instructor in my early 20s sometimes a kid would start crying and their parent would come over to scream at them to behave and then it would take waaay longer to get their body to relax enough to float.

So while I’m sure it doesn’t make or break every fear of needles or medical anxiety, I do think a LOT of it comes down to how the parent handles and ideally normalizes routine medical care.

I hope so. Irrational fears are really hard to control.

There is reasons to be afraid of needles. Courage is not having no fear, its facing your fear.