Lateral Flow Tests for School

[dementedpixie]

My 2 kids are supposed to do twice weekly LFTs now they have gone back to school. Does anyone else's child find it impossible to do the tonsil swab? Their tongues seem too big for their mouth and you can't see where the swab is supposed to go. When I try I still can't see in there properly and then they gag before I get near anything.

Any tips or can we get away with extensive nose swabbing instead?

We have been using clean lolly sticks as tongue depresses or whatever you call them as DS couldnt flatten his tongue to the bottom of his mouth it seems like it has a mind of its own!

Hi my children were told to just do both nostrils if they found the throat to gaggy! Much easier 10 twizzels each side

I bought tongue depressors but that makes them gag too. Tongues are weird. Dd's seems to expand to fill her mouth and ds's retracts as soon as the swab comes near. Spent ages trying to get a sample tonight.

We always use a mirror to see where it's going.

Yes we've tried a mirror too. Maybe my children have small mouths and big tongues

just do nostrils!

One of mine only does 2 nostrils - she can’t stick anything in the back of her throat due to gag reflex so two nostrils is what she does. No test has been inconclusive so far so it seems to work well.

My mum gags so much when she has to do them. She was at the hospital last week and they wanted a swab. They said if you ‘aaahh’ while swabbing it is much easier. She said she didn’t gag at all and it was far easier than before. Maybe give that a try?