to ask if there are any drs or nurses here...

[asmallplace]

...who can advise me on how to get a throat and/or nasopharyngeal swab from my son? He is 19 months old. His covid results have come back unclear and I know it's because I did the test wrong. I realised that once I started reading about people's experiences regarding how far up the nose a medical professional went. The test site local to me requires us to do the tests ourselves. He screams and thrashes his head around when I try. There was no way I was getting near his throat.

It's so hard to do this on a one year old! Any advice or tips would be helpful as he's booked for a retest today.

Just assume he has it and take the necessary precautions.

Not a doctor or nurse but is it essential for him to have it?

Why are you trying to administer a test ?

@Immunity @ZoBo123 yes because there are two essential workers in the house, me law enforcement and another who is a doctor. We are both running on skeleton staff and can't really afford to be at home self isolating for two weeks if he is negative.

@AnyFucker because I have to. The test site local to me requires you to do it yourself.

If you have a doctor in the household, ask them ?

@AnyFucker he's asleep, the test result just came back and I'm now booked in for retest at 8am. I will wake him up if I have to.

I’m confused. You have a dr in the house so surely they will be best to either do the test or advise you on how to do it?

@TheTrollFairy yes but he is asleep, and I don't want to wake him if I don't have to. He was up all night on his laptop working until 4am so there's no way I'm letting him drive my kid anywhere in an hour. He's not my partner just someone who lives here and I don't feel comfortable waking him up. I'm just after advice if there's anyone on here who can give it.

Look at this thread here Many adults find the test difficult and painful.

You shouldn't be pinning a 1yo down to do the test yourself. It is likely to give a false result as they obviously will kick and squirm

Get the adults tested instead

@AnyFucker the test is for those with symptoms though. It says do not book if you are asymptomatic. My son is the only one with symptoms.

Bless him I am not surprised I wouldn’t fancy it. Have you tried when he is sleepy?

I had to swab my son. I watched a video on YouTube from a children's hospital in Canada and they suggested having the child in the carseat. I found getting the back of his throat easier than the nasal part.

@Pixxie7 I haven't, because you can only test at the allotted time.

There was a doctor on radio 4 talking about tests on Friday.
30% of them are throwing up false negatives and the quote she said was
If it quacks like a duck and looks like a duck. Ignore the result and assume it’s a duck!

Hi op, I’m a nurse, I’ve both had the swab and taken it from adult patients. Please wake the doctor up and ask them to do it. You cannot possibly hold your son and take the swab properly all by yourself. You might end up with a false negative result.

@DreamingofSunshine hi, thanks. did you get an accurate result? My son won't keep his mouth open. How old is your son?

@TheDuchessofDukeStreet he's gonna be so grumpy. Argh! I might see if I can cancel the test and book a later one after he's up. It would be so much easier if we could both go in the car with him but it's not allowed...

@TheDuchessofDukeStreet thank you for your answer x

I believe so, he had no symptoms except being tired so I feel it was more a precaution than anything else (we aren't NHS so a different testing regime here). He's two.

It was negative which I expected, I suppose it could have been a false negative but given he didn't have symptoms I just accepted the result. He was found to be vit D deficient which would explain the tiredness.

As cruel as it sounds, once I tried to do the nose part he opened his mouth which helped. Ideally two adults do it. He stopped crying very quickly once it was done.

Any nurse or doctor would not do this test on a toddler without another pair of hands

One to quickly get the swab in to the right place (no mean feat) and the other to pin the child down for the minimum amount of time

The longer you struggle, the crueller it is

@DreamingofSunshine thank you, and well done. You did better than I did!

You’re welcome, hope you get it sorted.

I would really recommend the carseat. Meant one of us held his head still and one swabbed.

@AnyFucker you're right. I don't think it was cruel the way I did it, because I did it bloody wrong and it is completely against your parental instinct to do it the way you're supposed to. I've booked a later test and going to ask dr to come with me. It says only one person to accompany symptomatic people in car hence why I was going to go by myself but they need to accept that I just can't do this on my own.