Help with blood tests for a 4 year old.

[vwvic]

Help- dd2 has to have some blood tests tomorrow. She's 4, and I'm having a bit of difficulty working out the best way of explaining it to her. Does anyone have any experience of doing this? What do you think is the best way of dealing with it?

[fimac1]

Is she having it done at the surgery or hospital? Found far more distractions in the Heomtology section of the Pediatrics where they are used to dealing with children - ds did not like it being done at the surgery (and refused!) so we end up going there. Best to tell her before you go that her blood is going to be tested (so they know how to make her better?) My ds is anemic and he knows it is to see his iron levels

Good luck

[princesspeahead]

I tell my ds (has been having regular tests since he was little) that we need to look at his blood to check that he is healthy, and to check that it is still red (!) (because he can see that instantly when it is taken). I also tell him that the nice thing about having to have it done is that afterwards he gets to go to the hospital vending machine and have whatever he wants out of it (a Twix, usually - an unheard of treat).
I also don't bother with the various "magic creams" which you have to put on either 30mins or an hour beforehand, because the mere act of having them put on and covered in plastic causes a lot of apprehension, and also because they give him (and lots of others) a rash. I always ask them to instead give them the freezing numbing spray that they do the 5 seconds before the needle goes in - the fact that it is very cold is a conversational topic and quite interesting and it is effective at numbing the area.

Hope some of that works for you!

[rickman]

Message withdrawn

[vwvic]

Marvellous- thanks for your suggestions chaps.

[princesspeahead]

did it go OK vwvic?

[fimac1]

Freezing numbing spray (liberally treated) worked a treat on my already wise ds last Friday for fairly regular bloods - nice nurse let him feel her hand after she demonstrated before which helped - not a single tear this time! (and was heavily bribed like others have said, with treats to follow if he was good!) Lunch out and new Playstation game did the trick, hope it went ok for you, vwvic?

[princesspeahead]

oh good fimac!
I found blood tests to be a whole lot less stressful once I discovered the existence of the freezing spray. Don't know why they persist with bloody emla.
Our next one in 2 weeks.