Going to the doctor can be a scary thing for kids. New sights, smells and people can be overwhelming, plus doctor’s offices can mean sickness, injury or shots. If your child is afraid of going to the doctor, there are many ways to ease their fears and show them that doctors don’t have to be scary. There are lots of ways you can talk to your kids about first aid, doctors and emergency situations while teaching them other skills and having some fun! Many popular book series have taken readers into doctor’s offices while showing kids that doctors and nurses are to be trusted and not feared.
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Some great children’s series which entertain kids while encouraging them to get their checkups, include:
Biscuit Visits the Doctor
Dora Goes to the Doctor (Dora the Explorer)
Splat the Cat Goes to the Doctor
The Berenstain Bears Go to the Doctor
Curious George Goes to the Hospital
Introduce kids to doctors with dramatic play
Dramatic Play – Set up an area to be the “Doctor’s Office” for your child’s stuffed animals and dolls. You can provide them with play doctor tools, coats, stethoscopes, bandages, clipboards, paper, pens, a doctor table, a scale, blankets, or anything else you can imagine. Encourage kids to take care of their toys and let their imaginations run wild! I created play bandages for my daughter out of felt so that she could “fix” her stuffed animal’s boo boos.
Band-Aid Match – Have kids place band-aids on the right part of the body when given a body part. This is a great way to review body parts. You can either have kids put band-aids on their own body parts (you can use cheap band-aids or stickers), or have them place band-aids on the body parts of their stuffed animals. You could also make it more of a challenge by giving kids colored star or circle stickers and giving them specific directions (place a red circle on your elbow).
Bandages on her dog
Band-Aid Letter Match – The website Tot Schooling offers a cute activity to help kids work on letter recognition skills. A drawing of a teddy bear has letters all over his body, and kids have to match the correctly marked Band-aid to each spot. This could be adapted in many ways to meet your child’s skill levels. You could match capital and lower case letters or rhyming words.
Help kids heal with the help of Boo Boo Bunny
Boo Boo Bunny – These adorable rabbit friends are made out of washcloths and hold a plastic ice cube in them to help kids heal their boo-boos with a friendly face. We keep these in the freezer, so when my daughter has a stumble, we can pull these out and put it on her bump before it swells. She now asks for her Boo Boo Bunny as soon as she takes a spill and it makes her feel a bit better.
To make these frozen friends, take a square washcloth and lay it flat. Roll one corner up to the middle, then take the opposite corner and roll it up to meet the other. Pull the two unrolled corners together, forming a loop out of the washcloth. Fold the two unrolled corners back and wrap a rubber band around the folded end to create a head and ears. Tie a ribbon around the elastic to cover it. You can add a pom pom to the back for a tail.
Discuss first aid procedures and supplies with your kids
Sorting – Give kids a variety of items and two baskets or bowls. Mark one of the bowls with a red cross. Have kids sort the items based on whether they should go into a first aid kit or not. If they put something in the first aid kit, have them tell you why. You may be surprised at their answers! While you may not consider a toy dinosaur important in an emergency, your child may see it as a comforting object meant to entertain and distract!
Discussion – Talk to your kids about going to the doctor and what kids should do if someone gets hurt. Depending on the age of your kids, discuss how they can help in an emergency situation. Make sure you have a quality first aid kit stocked with products. Show kids where you keep your kit, and review the items inside. This will help to ease fears, as kids will know that there are items available if they need them.
Be prepared for emergencies with a quality first aid kit!
I had the opportunity to check out the KidzStuff First Aid Kit. This kit was designed by pediatricians, so it is full of quality first aid supplies for parents of children, all packaged in an easy to store pouch. My family tends to be quite clumsy and my husband was trained as an EMT, so we have pretty high standards for our first aid supplies. The kit is divided into 3 pouches, making it easy to find what you are looking for in a rush.
Some of the items in this first aid kit includes:
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- Bandages
- Antibiotic Ointment
- Anti-septic Wipes
- Instant Cold Pack
- CPR Mask
- Gloves
- Scissors
- Burn Cream
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This kit also includes a first aid guide to provide helpful steps to care for cuts, stings, burns and more. This is a comprehensive kit for families to have in their home, and a great way to introduce to kids to first aid procedures and show them that you have the necessary supplies if an emergency or injury occurs. I highly recommend families introduce their kids to first aid supplies, and the Kidz-Safe First Aid Kit is a great way to do so. I received a complimentary kit for review purposes, but all ideas and opinions are my own.
Do you have any favorite doctor books that you share with your kids? Let me know in the comments!
Great tips! Our little guy starts to be more conscious about the visits to his doctor so will definitely use this
I hope it helps! My daughter used to like the doctor, but she’s starting to become more hesitant.
I love the use of dramatic play with kids. Most of the time they will voice their fears through playing when they wouldn’t be able to respond to a direct question.
Yes! I love how much you can learn just by watching them and listening.
Reading books about the doctor to get your child familiar with it is so smart! I need to start stocking up on some of these books now so that I can start reading them to my son. He already hates the doctors office and he’s only 6 months old 🙁
Aw, I hope they help! My daughter always did well at the doctor before, but her last appointment she just started crying! I think next time we have to remember to read one of these right before.
What a great post! Thanks!
Thank you!
My son is TERRIFIED of the doctor!! We bought him a doctor kit to play with and become more comfortable. I LOVE the books you listed…. going to try the bandaid matchup!
Aw, I hope it helps! I hope you have fun with it!
Love these band-aid games! Pinning!
Thank you! I hope you have fun with them!
These are great and fun tips!
Belle | One Awesome Momma
Thank you!
These are great tips. Books and dramatic play have been helpful with my kids overcoming their healthcare anxiety.
That’s so great! My daughter is just starting to understand the doctor, so we are stocking up!
This is so, so helpful. The last visit to the doctors, my 4yo acted terrified. It was horrible and I didn’t see it coming because she’d never behaved like that before. I’ll be better prepared next time!
My daughter just had the same experience! She has always done well at the doctor, but all of a sudden this last trip, she screamed the whole time. The doctor told us it is normal for her age, but I was shocked!
Great post, thank you! After our last visit with an ouchie flu shot these tips are coming at a perfect time.
Aw, I hope they help! Shots are the worst!
Boo Boo Bunny is so cute! My daughter is always afraid of shots. For our flu shots this year we really worked on managing this and keeping calm. It really helped to breath and focus on everything will be okay.
My daughter loves it! I don’t blame your daughter, I am afraid of shots too! Breathing and not looking at the needle definitely helps me.
very cute as a parent to special needs kids I can really appreciate you sharing this post as we visit doctors a lot.
Thanks! I hope it helps!
I’m pinning this for later, my kid is very small right now and he doesn’t even really know what a boo boo is. But the books you pick out are perfect!
Aw thank you! I hope he enjoys it when he is older!
Great ideas! We’ve actually done the Tot Schooling activity you mentioned and my Little Man loved it. And the boo boo bunny is adorable!
Thank you! I’m glad he had fun with that!
These are such great ideas. I definitely want to try these once Baby D is old enough. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you! I hope you have fun with them in the future!
Great tips and tricks, that boo boo bunny is the cutest!
Thank you! My daughter loves it!
My husband has the best way of talking with the kids about getting shots. He explains to them that it only hurts for a minute and the medicine is to help protect them from getting very sick. They really respond well to that.
That’s great! For me, I think I always forgot about the fact that it only hurt for a minute and the build up was the worst part for me!
This is such a great idea! When my little one is older, we’ll definitely explore the picture books together to help prepare for doctor appointments. I love the boo boo bunny. That’s so very sweet.
Thank you! My daughter loves it!
These are good tips. The doctor can be a scary place!
I agree! My daughter is just now starting to understand the doctor, so we are working on this a lot.
We love Berenstain Bears and Curious George, great book recommendations! and I like the idea about the bandaids and stuffed animals for nervous little ones. Thanks for the ideas!
I hope they help!
Thankfully, I havve a kid whole actually loves going to the doctors. In fact the other day he pinched his finger and told me he need to go to the doctor to have it checked out. This was after watching an episode of Daniel Tiger, where Daneil went to the drs. However, I think these are all great ideas for those kids that do have a fear.
Aw that is great! My daughter originally liked the doctor, but recently decided differently!
Excellent selections. I remember that Curious George from way back when!
Thanks! Curious George is such a classic!
These are such great ideas! my favorite was the washcloth idea! how adorable is that. Thank you so much for sharing, I’m sure I’ll be using these when my son is old enough to understand 🙂
Thank you! I hope they are helpful!
This is so cute!! I do a first aid picnic for my Sparks every year. It’s such an important tool to learn no matter how young.
Thanks for sharing at #bloggerspotlight
Thank you! I agree it is so important to introduce to kids!