Advice on testing young children

[Hellomoonstar]

I have changed my mind and I wouldn’t like to isolate dc in case they develop symptoms (we self isolated once instead of testing). I got a seven year old, four year old and a seven month old baby. Any tips or videos on how to do test? Covid is on the increase where I live and I like to be prepared as possible.

I think there is a NHS video. Don't attempt the throat swab. Use bribery with the 4 and 7 year old. Do a home test.

Thank you @Underhisi

I have a 3 year old. I took him for 2 drive through tests at different times.

The first we did no prep work, he got very upset and knocked the swab out of my hand, so we had to start again.

The second time we took cotton wool buds and let him 'test' us first. He ended up taking his own test and was much happier about it. Also bribed with chocolate buttons.

Both times we only did the nasal swab.

We took our four year olds to a test site. We did throat and nose. I put her favourite thing on YouTube on my phone. She didn’t like it and she doesn’t want another but it was done pretty quickly.

We have tested my 5, 3 and 1 year old. The 3 year old was positive.

The 1 year old was a couple of months ago and we had to do the back of her throat. Which went the way you can imagine and she went absolutely fucking bananas.

By the time we came to test the other two they had changed the rules and we only needed to do the nose. Much much easier and less invasive. Both of them were given something to watch on my phone and a chocolate bar straight after. It's really really quick, only about 30 seconds. Different test sites are different and at the one we took my three year old to they were really lovely to him, doing dances and silly faces and all that through the car window and they gave you chocolate with the test!

They don't really advertise it, but you are better with two adults for a small child and they say it's fine to bring more than one.

Thank you all very much for the advice. Ds2 woke feeling hot to the touch and our thermometer is acting up (showing conflicting information) so I decided to follow the advice of our mayor and book a test if someone feels hot.

It went well, I took some sweets with me. Only put it in his nostrils and he held the stick with me. Hopefully, the results will come quick and be negative.