Is There No Other Alternative?

By Dr. Shahid Amin Trali

One of my beloved teachers few days before dropped me a message in my inbox. As I looked at the message, it was some video clip. The video clip had also some text message with it which read ‘Is there no other alternative’. While accessing the video clip, there was a small boy chanting all good verses from holy Quran. I could find many members of a family trying to catch hold of an innocent boy. The boy was crying loudly and making requests to free him. The painful cries were hurting me deep and in heart. Next there was a person (doctor) having a syringe in his hand. The little boy was going to be injected. Then the doctor with high efforts injected into the baby’s body and it was so awful and tearing to bear his cries.

There was much discomfort in me to see the boy’s pain. I started looking for an answer from the researchers in this field. My submission is ‘can’t there be substitutes to the injections’? Are there strong reasons that we have to mandatorily inject? If there is availability of substitutes to injections why the concept is not becoming popular then? It is the responsibility of our vibrant doctors and the research fraternity to solve this problem and suggest societies something better.

There are yet good ways that have already been suggested to tackle with the needle injections. It’s a fact that getting needle injections might help us to protect against various illnesses, but they sure do hurt. It’s no wonder that most of us are scared of getting injections. Our lovely kids are not an exception. But when we will plan better and make our child ready, it surely will make a next shot a little smoother experience. We need not to make it awful scenes rather describe as something that will lead a happy life ahead for them. But we must also tell a truth that it’ll hurt them, but just for a few seconds of time. We must also distract the attention of our child by playing with his hand, telling a joke or story etc. Once the child is done with an injection we must appreciate him for his strength and bravery. We must promise our child that after getting an injection we’ll do something special together or he may get something special. A small positive reinforcement can do wonders and make the next trip to the doctor easier.

I have some recent experience with my beloved son. My little son who is just five years in age was to undergo the ‘Khatna’, a mandatory practice in our Islamic culture. ‘Khitan’ or ‘Khatna’ is the term male circumcision and is widespread in Islam and accepted as a Sunnah practice. My son was immensely happy and a big reason was that he was mentally ready in advance. He was always being told in family that he will become ‘Mahraaz’ (In Kashmiri Language- Groom) on the day of his Khatna.

Moreover we related it with more positivity that everyone will congratulate him on that day and give him hugs and sweets. Surprisingly when the good day came, and he was done with the Khatna, he never revealed any signs of worry at all. He was in fact ready to play just after big moment of Khatna. It was unbelievable and challenging the myth when everyone was so scared of the practice.

Getting injections or medical treatments can be tough especially when we have kids to face its wrath. But the benefits of treatments are always worth the effort. Some of the small tips suggested can help parents control the pain of their kids and in turn make them ready to face the needles. Children are truly a treasure of happiness and a big responsibility for any society is to make its kids happy.

(The author is Assistant Professor, ITM University Gwalior. Educator at Unacademy and Editor in Chief at startupdailytips.com, he can be reached at: [email protected])