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.

If it's essential that you get the test, your best bet is to wrap the child in a sheet so that they are restrained. Mum cuddles kid and someone else does the swab. Probably not easy in the car but will stop too much wriggling and lashing out

I've spoken to dr housemate. He's going to come with me. The reason I didn't want to wake him was because he specifically said he was going to be up late writing a report and to try not to wake him in the morning (fair enough). He's a lovely person and I shouldn't have been so nervous to wake him up. Long history of DV makes any sort of confrontation difficult even if it is a reasonable request! Anyway, enough waffling. Test now booked for 9.

Just to reiterate what others have said, a nurse or dr wouldn’t do this swab on a child by themselves, just like an adult needs to hold a child when you take them for their jabs.
As someone else said, wrap your kiddo in a blanket so their arms aren’t free then sit them on your lap with one of their arms against your chest and your arms wrapped round them that way if that makes sense. I would make sure you have something as a ‘treat’ for them for after their swab which will help calm them down.

Good luck!

The test is pointless in that your kid could test negative today and not in a few days. If he has symptoms you need to isolate. You can’t just go off a test unless you want to spread it around everywhere.

@icansmellburningleaves the whole point of the quicker tests for key workers is so they can go back to work is it not?