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Swabbing 3 year old

5 replies

Bol87 · 05/09/2020 07:01

Can anyone give a definitive answer to what on Earth you do to swab a 3 year olds throat?! I attempted it & she immediately bit the swab and got her tongue all over it. She is now refusing to open her mouth. I’ve tried every bribe under the sun. I did get it up her nose fairly easily & although she cried, I feel like I had a good enough swab of it.

She’s very sensitive to pain & terrified of medical procedures. We had to physically restrain her during her 3 year imms & she threw up from crying. She was traumatised. She still talks about it & if we walk past our doctors she starts to shake & panic.

Is just a nose swab a suitable sample? I will order another test as I assume the current one is now no good. We can’t simply just isolate every time she gets a cold instead of testing. We are key workers & have to work or we’ll lose our jobs. Obviously, if we get Covid we’ll isolate but we can’t for every blooming cold & cough my daughter inevitably gets this winter!

OP posts:
magnarocks · 05/09/2020 09:01

We attended drive through testing yesterday with our three year old and they said nostril swabbing alone was fine - there's no way he'd let us swab his throat.

Did bribe him with some chocolate buttons too. 🤫

Castiel07 · 05/09/2020 09:57

Had to do my 5 year old this morning, did both nostrils, no way was he going to let me do the back of his throat.
Just hope we don't get inconclusive results.

angelopal · 05/09/2020 09:59

Did both nostrils with 2 year old as point blank refused to open his mouth.

ProfMcGonigle · 05/09/2020 10:08

I took my DS for testing and they said, for children, if you can't do a throat swab, do both nostrils

Bol87 · 05/09/2020 13:35

Ohh thanks so much for this info! I’ll do both nostrils next swab!

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