Xrays and Blood Draw for 3-Year-old - What to Expect?

My son was almost 2 when he had blood drawn. I sat in the chair with him on my lap. I held his free arm. There was a tech that held his other arm and the tech that drew the blood. I had brought a lollipop with me and had it already out of the wrapper and waiting for him when he was done. He was more focused on the lollipop than he was the blood draw.

My son had blood draws.

You hold your child in your lap. They let me.
You distract him.
Bring a whistle with you.... and on the count of 3... have the Nurse do the poke then. Have your son BLOW hard on the whistle at the SAME time on the count of 3.
Ask them to use a "butterfly" needle if they can. Usually with children this is what they use. It is a smaller needle. Or for people who have small veins.
Bring his Lovey with him or a comfort item that he loves.

Talk to him beforehand about the Xrays. That they are taking a picture of him etc. So as to make it not intimidating.
The key thing is, to explain it simply to him... beforehand, so he is not overwhelmed once there.
PRACTICE at home. Have him lie down on a table and stay as still as he can for about 30 seconds.
Practice. Make it "fun" for him etc.
**Adding This: You can tell him it is a "statue" game. My kids like that.

If YOU are calm... then that will help him.
Try not to be anxious. Or he will be too.
Speak calmly even when you ask the people questions etc.

Good luck.

I don't know the answer but wanted to let you know that you are all in our prayers.

We went through a whole battery of blood tests and x-rays with my youngest. Assuming you will be doing this at a children's hospital, the phlebotomists who draw blood are usually very good with children. That being said, our experience was difficult anyway because they did have to draw quite a bit of blood (like 11 separate vials of varying amounts). They put the needle in once, and then just change vials to get the blood they need for the various tests. For my daughter (she had just turned 4 but weighed only about 30 pounds) it seemed like kind of a lot of blood for such a little person to give! My advice would be to bring something along that your son really likes, such as a Nintendo DS, or maybe a new game on your iPhone, or something like that, and try to distract him before they bring the needle out. I didn't do that, and my daughter FREAKED when they had to insert the needle. It took me and 2 techs to hold her down. She fought and screamed. :( She has always been really afraid of needles, though. Afterward, she didn't even have a bruise, so I think they did a really good job, she was just so upset by the sight of a needle going into her arm.

Also, you are totally right in your idea to try to schedule the x-rays first. That is not a scary process, and in our case, the tech took the time to show my daughter some x-rays, and showed her how the "big giant camera" (x-ray machine) worked. That went fine and my daughter liked it. BUT, originally I'd had it scheduled right after the blood draw, and she was too upset at that point to have the x-rays done, so we had to cancel and re-schedule for another day. Ugh!

I hope your son's tests go well and that they find everything is normal and he's healthy!

not a whimper out of my son at that age!

they're professionals & know how to do it right....

if you present yourself as "calm & collected", you will be modeling what you want out of him.

For both of our sons, we always used humor to help us thru....google-eye fake glasses, a fav stuffed animal with it's own IV....anything to diffuse the focus. Good Luck!

I took one of my grandsons for a blood test, out of the vein, and he sat there and when they said 'don't look' he did and was interested in it and when done he said 'thank you' to them. They said adults didn't do that well and gave him two band aids and two suckers. :-) We also had a grandson go through all these tests and then treatment, bone marrow, etc. for leukemia. He's fine now and 15 years old but was about your sons age when he was diagnosed. Do whatever you have to do to make it positive and don't act scared even if you are. I think we do worse as parents when we think of our 'baby' going through something. I hope the results come out good. The X-ray should be nothing because they explain it to the child and there is no pain. Be sure you are honest with him if something will hurt and tell him what to expect with a positive attitude.

Both of my boys have had multiple blood drawsn. My now 4 yr old did for allergy testing last year, he was scared but once they had the needle in he was fine. We had just got back from camping and explained how mosquitoes bite and suck blood (morbid I know) so I told him it would be just like that. Once he saw the blood he was kept saying just like a mosquito there's my blood, he was highly interested and it really wasn't that bad.

Honestly, I think his was only fearful because unfortunately my youngest has had many draws, and he came along for quite a few and saw him screaming. My youngest has horrible veins, there were many times we had multiple pricks, once 4 times and then sent home to come back another day to have it all done over again. Was not fun at all. Suggestion just make sure he has plenty of fluids and I was also recommended to keep him warm, so once we started the blood continued to flood.

Praying for your little guy its not fun at all.

My daughter is 3 and just had 2 vials of blood drawn on Thursday. I kept putting the test off cause I didn't know what to expect. They did a normal adult blood drawn in the arm. She was amazing didn't move or cry! She sat on my lap and the nurse talked her through the whole thing. The nurse was great! The nurse said that if she couldn't see a vein she would not even try. She explained that it looks scarier then what it is and told her if would feel like a mosquito bite and then she would see "magic." you has the mom need to hold him tight and keep his arm still. She gave her things to hold so it would be easier to make a fist. Also they place the tourniquet over her clothes so it didn't pinch her. I think that if you get a good person who knows what they are doing, he'll be ok. My daughther is pretty strong though she very rarely cries for her immunizations. Although she kept saying, "I don't want a shot."

My daughter was 1 when she needed a chest x-ray and blood work. They put her in a hard plastic "vest" that was fixed onto a kind of bicycle seat since she had to sit still to get this lung picture taken (turns out she had pneumonia). That ended up being a lot harder than it sounds, since I had to step away from her so they could take the picture. She was fine with me fixing her into this contraption, but when I stepped away she started to cry. Crying is not good for a clear picture: ideally one takes a deep breath and holds it, but how do you tell such a small child that? So they took several digital pictures and one of them was good enough to show the pneumonia.
When they took blood they used a little needle with a long flexible hose attached. She sat on my lap and they poked her while I held both her arms. At 3 he is quite a bit bigger but perhaps he can still sit on your lap while you hold him still. It was over before she even knew to cry.

Michelle,

I don't know who your ped is, but I wanted to tell you about emla cream. It is a numbing cream that you can get with a prescription through a pharmacy. My son was so scared of his first blood draw and it was traumatic for him and me! When he needed a second, I demanded this cream. When the needle was in he asked the tech when she was going to do it (he was looking away)!! I will not do another lab draw without it!

If you can not get a script for this before his blood draw tomorrow then I will tell you what else we do! We have a plan before we go in. My son sits next to me in the chair. He puts his arm out for the blood draw and rests his head on the inside of my elbow. Then we do visualization together. We talk about where he is in his mind (the beach, etc). That really helps too.

Good luck,

Nickie

I'm Sooo sorry you are going through this. To draw the blood they unfortunately will have to hold the little guy down if he can't stay still. Some kids do great but most of the time they get scares and need to be held. That is OK too. I've started many IV s on little ones and it is worse for the parents. They draw it like they would an adult. Your main job will be to comfort him during and after the process. The lab will guide you where to stand. They will draw less than a 1/2 tsp. It always looks like more. 4 vials is 2 teaspoons to give you an idea. A cbc is only one vial. Good luck and you were smart to have x ray done first. Always remember positive reinforcement only -even if he throws a tantrum.

A cbc is one lavender tube that holds between 2.4 and 4.5ml of fluid. They may have him lay down or sit on your lap. He may cry, he may scream. But the more matter of fact you are about it the better he will do. He will feed off of your emotions, kids always do. Also it is preferred for you not to set up the healthcare worker as "the mean lady" we get this alot....the mean lady will be done in a minute. Really makes it hard the next time to present us as not wanting to hurt them and makes it tougher for everyone concerned. My kids get a boo boo buddy, if theyare good they then get to choose a small prize...we have used lil kins or matchbox cars. Yup it's bribery but we really don't have alot of draws, so this one is worth the bribe.

When they did the same for my son, same search he was 15mo, they drew blood from the arm (elbow crook), it took holding him down. Basically they laid him on the table, knees bent over the end, arms out flat - one held the non blood drawn arm and I lay across his body at the knees up and helped keep his shoulders down while comforting him the best I could. Basically the same thing for the xrays you will both wear the lead aprons and need to keep calm. Honestly, there is no easy way to do all of this. My son ended up needing to have the blood work done weekly, and finger pricks three times a week and eventually he got used to it and bubbles worked, however I think talking him thru it, preparing him, practicing if you can and explaining what you can is all you can do. Just know that ice cream goes a long way! I hope all is well my son eneded up with something that he could and did grow out of that was not anywhere near the severity of treatment as lukemia and I hope the same goes for you if something has to be found.