There's no getting around it: shots aren't fun for anyone—not the child, the parent, or the anxious sibling.

Although injections are over quickly, those few moments of sharp pain can be upsetting for all. But, according to a new study, there may be a simple way to reduce a child's distress when getting multiple shots: give the least painful one first. (Learn more about baby and child immunizations.)

The study included 120 healthy babies age 2 to 6 months who were getting two shots: the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) and the combination vaccine for diphtheria, polio, tetanus, pertussis and Haemophilus influenzae type b (DPTaP-Hib). The PCV vaccine is the more painful of the two, which experts attribute to its lower pH (this means it's more acidic).

The babies were randomly assigned to get either the PCV or DPTaP-Hib vaccine first. Neither the parents nor the doctors knew which shots were being injected when, as the syringes were labeled only with the order they were to be given. The babies were videotaped during the injections, with a researcher scoring their pain based on facial expressions, crying and body movements. Parents were also asked to rate their child's pain on a scale of zero to 10.

Babies who were given the less painful DPTaP-Hib shot first showed less pain overall than those who had the PCV vaccine first. Parents also rated their babies' pain as lower when the DPTaP-Hib shot was given first.

Read the rest of this post on our Health blog.