Building a New Support Program for At-Home Injections & Needle Fears

Getting started with Injections: 
No one truly looks forward to giving themselves, or their child, a needle. So it’s perfectly normal to feel anxious at first. This guide from AbbVie contains valuable information from doctors, nurses and pain specialists, to help make your entire injection process as smooth and comfortable as possible. 

Getting started with needle pokes:
Needle pokes are one of the most common sources of pain for children seeking emergency medical care. Needle pokes may be used during healthcare visits to collect blood, deliver medication and fluids, or to numb certain body parts while stitching, for example. This video provides information about needle pokes and useful tips for parents and families who have a child that may require a needle poke.

SOURCE: This video was created through a collaboration between ECHO Research (University of Alberta), TREKK, and ARCHE (University of Alberta). Funding was provided by the Networks of Centres of Excellence and the Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation through the Women and Children’s Health Research Institute.

Absolutely! Our friends at TREKK have put together this infographic to guide you through helping your child with a needle poke at every age. It also includes information on when/why they might need to get a needle poke, distraction techniques, and other tips!

There are many things that can be done to reduce anxiety about receiving needles.  For some parents, this means coming up with a coping plan i.e. using distraction techniques, giving the child a sense of control by offering options (i.e., where the injection goes, look away, using numbing cream). If you find that you need support with this, you can talk to your rheumatologist or nurse about additional supports that might be helpful (e.g., child psychologists with expertise in this area).  They can help your child learn coping strategies, come up with a gradual exposure plan, and work with you on some parenting support strategies that can be helpful.

You can also check out these guides:

• No More Needle Fear: The Nurses Guide to Reducing Anxiety in Children & Teens
• How to Help Your Child Cope With Needles

Fear of needles is very common in children and adults. All children get needles through their regular immunizations. Those with medical illnesses or problems will need to get even more needles for injections or blood work. Most children and adults are able to overcome their fears, and it does not stop them from getting necessary immunizations, injections or blood work.

But if the fear is so great that it stops that person from getting needles, then it may be a condition known as ‘needle phobia’.

‘Needle phobia’ is a type of specific phobia. Its main features include:

• Marked and persistent fear of needles that is excessive or unreasonable, cued by the presence or anticipation of needles.
• Exposure to needles almost invariably provokes immediate anxiety.
• Situations involving needles are avoided or are endured with intense anxiety or distress.
• The avoidance, fear and distress around needles interfere significantly with the person’s life.

Learn more about the causes, experience treatment of needle phobia here!

In addition to the guides available on this page, you can hear from young adults in our community who shared their experience coping with needle phobia during our Virtual Youth Panel (Skip to 59:51).

Some children have also found it helpful to watch a demonstration of a needle. To help other kids learn about the process of getting an IV, 8-year-old Charlotte Sangers made this video of her stuffy named Giraffy getting his medication!

We chatted with three young adults in our community to learn about their experiences with self-injections. Here’s what they had to say:

Graeme: I started self-injecting methotrexate when I was 16, after 9 months in remission without any medication. The struggle was twofold: one, there was the idea of sticking a sharp object into my body and two, learning how to give myself injections meant facing the fact that I wasn’t well, and I would not be getting better for the foreseeable future.

My rheumatologist arranged appointments with a couple of nurses to help practice. We started on stress balls, which helped with the mechanics of using the syringe and needle. Then, I would go in every week and get feedback from them while I injected myself. Because I had to focus on the pain of the needle and the task at hand, I found it easier to distract myself from the nausea I associated with the medication.

That’s another thing: I found it hard to inject myself because there’s that initial pain when the needle goes in, and my reaction was to instantly pop the needle back out! Then I had to restart. I got in the habit of going slowly — I would take 5-10 seconds to get the needle in (my Dad used to take half a second).Self-injecting ultimately made it easier for me to manage my stress and nausea for methotrexate because I had to focus when I took it and I was in control.

Kelsey: I did my own injections from the moment I was diagnosed at age 14. I personally felt like this increased my independence and allowed me to travel, go to sleepovers etc. without concern for managing my medications.

Manahil: I switched to injections in high school and started regaining movement in the two fingers that were previously stiff. Injections were hard for me to get through but my parents would have me smell an orange peel while they gave me the injection as the smell is very pungent and instead of focusing on the injection I focused on the smell. If orange peels were not available they would have me eat a candy! In short, my parents were able to distract me from the discomfort of the injection and my condition became more stable a few months later as a consequence of the injections.

Looking for more “self-injection” content? Young adult patient, Julie Beausoleil, has been doing self-injections with her JIA medication since she was in her early teens. In this video, she walks us through her at-home injection routine and shares some helpful tips when it comes to preparing yourself for your medication.