Nobody likes getting a shot. They can hurt, and it's weird knowing that the nurse is about to jab you with that needle.

But shots called vaccinations keep you from getting some serious diseases. These diseases could make you very sick. The pinch of a shot isn't nearly as bad as those illnesses.

Making Antibodies

Shots protect you by giving you only a tiny piece of a disease-causing or by giving you a version of the germ that is dead or very weak. Giving a whole germ that's alive would give you a disease (like measles or

But giving only this tiny, weakened, or dead part of the germ does not give you the disease. Instead, just the opposite happens. Your body responds to the vaccine by making antibodies. These antibodies are part of your immune system, and they can fight the disease if you ever come in contact with that nasty germ.

When your body is protected from a disease in this way, it's called being immune to an illness. It can't get you. In most cases, it means you won't get the illness at all. But sometimes, you can still get a mild case of the illness. This can happen with chickenpox. Even kids who get the shot to prevent chickenpox can still get a case of it. The good news is that they usually don't get a very bad case of it. Milder cases mean fewer spots and less itching.

Shots are given by injection with a needle. A syringe (say: suh-rinj) holds the liquid vaccine, and the needle has a hole in it for the liquid to squirt through. Shots are usually given in your arm or sometimes your thigh.