Somebody else put the date in the diary
Your child knows it is coming. These are free plans for the week before, written for the real day rather than in general, and they do not agree with each other on purpose.
One question tells you which of these you need: is anybody going to put your child to sleep? If they are, you tell a small child later than feels right, because more notice buys a four-year-old nothing but more nights of being afraid. If they are not, you tell them earlier and read it three nights running. Getting that backwards is the most common mistake in the whole subject, so start here rather than with whichever page you found first.
A first dentist visit
A check-up, a clean, a count of the teeth. Nothing is done that needs them still for long, and the whole difficulty is that the room is strange and the chair goes backwards.
When to tell them: Three nights before, and read it on all three.
Read the planA day operation
Grommets, tonsils, a tooth under anaesthetic, a scan that needs them completely still. They go to sleep, and they come home the same day.
When to tell them: The day before for a pre-schooler. Later than instinct says.
Read the planAn injection or a blood test
A jab, a booster, a blood sample. Over in seconds, which is exactly why the days before are not where this one is won or lost.
When to tell them: The morning of is enough. There is nothing to rehearse.
Read the planWhat every one of these is
A short story where your child goes to the real place on the real day, a small thing to practise beforehand, and one sentence for you to say at the moment parents describe as the worst. The whole method is on each page, free, with its sources linked and dated. You can use all of it tonight without us.
If you would rather we made your child their own version, each page ends with one question: what date. We are writing these by hand for the first families, so there is nothing to pay and no account to make.
None of it is medical advice, and where a page and your own letter from the practice or the hospital disagree, your letter is right.
Who to ask, at the place itself
There is usually somebody whose job is this, and almost nobody asks for them. Each page names the one for its own appointment:
- A first dentist visit: Paediatric dental practice.
- A day operation: Health play specialist on the children’s ward.
- An injection or a blood test: Practice nurse, or the phlebotomy team.
Not this week, but a child who finds new places hard?
Stories for a nervous child