Are anyone else's kids getting distressed with all the testing?

[musicalfrog]

Our LA has asked that all children ages 2 and up are LF tested twice weekly.

My child age 8 hates getting tested, we've done it about 5 times in as many weeks due to symptoms and close contacts, every time it's been negative. I really don't want to put my kids through it any more. Anyone else feeling the same?

you can't rationalise things with young toddlers. They are too young to understand

If you can't rationalise it you normalise it instead. And there are so many ways to do it.
For example
You pop an (old negative) lateral flow test and some cotton wool buds into a kids doctors set. Dolly gets a lateral flow test, big ted gets a lateral flow test "dont forget doctor (childs name) to test big ted before you do your check up ? In fact just to be on the safe side maybe all the toys ought to have a test because we dont want (whatever your oldest toy is) to get ill. If he does he might have to take into it to toy hospital or to (other toy) because we have to be careful with them or with because they've needed to go through the washing machine too many times and are a bit fragile! (Normalising and rationalising in one shot)
You let your child do your lateral flow.
You watch operation ouch so medical stuff doesn't seem alien.
You do the test just before they are going to do something they want to do. You let them throw a wobbler, literally sit and watch. When theyre done you tell them how silly they are for throwing a wobbler when they could have been doing whatever. And as soon as they've done the test they can do whatever it was they wanted to do. Simplify to Flow then tv (with visuals if needed).

Kids with medical issues have been doing stuff like this for years. When DS was 4 he had an comfort toy who did everything first from playing with a new toy to being given general anesthesia through a mask at 4 (although in that case the doctor and I play acted "going to sleep" then waking up first before teddy, it was a clearly a very well practiced sketch by the rather no fuss doctor.) It can be done gently. It just needs a little imagination

The old style tests were a nightmare and distressing for DD4 to the point that we stopped doing them. She now quite enjoys the responsibility of doing her own 'bogie test' in the mirror. No fuss at all. Easier than getting her to clean her teeth!

9 year old is fine with it.

She enjoys setting everything up herself, then does the swab and completes the test. She doesn't like it if I try to get involved!

If we all just said no and stopped testing we’d get out of this crap faster. Only symptomatic unwell people need testing on arrival at a healthcare facility to check if that’s what making them ill do they can receive the appropriate treatment. For everyone else, it’s just a bug like most others and if you feel ill you’ll naturally want to stay in bed and away from others anyway.
I’m sick of it, we all coped before when there were viruses with 99% survival rates roaming the lands, with the addition of vaccines for the vulnerable, it really is time we regained our collective common sense and decided risk for ourselves.

I hate doing it and I only do because I have to once a week to keep my job (nhs)
I wouldn't be making my kids do it

I do a Pcr if asked by the school or nursery, recently did this due to close contact with a case but I don't test my kids regularly. It's too impractical, distressing for them and personally I find it pointless.

Fair dues to you for finding a way @Caramellatteplease but honestly that is unnecessary.

My child took a long time to get used to the tests but is able to do them twice a week now with no issues. She is 11 though I think we would have found it much harder at 8. Some kids are just more anxious and worried about medical stuff if it's causing real distress I wouldn't make her do it but I would make sure all the rest of the family were done instead to mitigate the risk as much as possible.

@Lostinacloud

If we all just said no and stopped testing we’d get out of this crap faster. Only symptomatic unwell people need testing on arrival at a healthcare facility to check if that’s what making them ill do they can receive the appropriate treatment. For everyone else, it’s just a bug like most others and if you feel ill you’ll naturally want to stay in bed and away from others anyway. I’m sick of it, we all coped before when there were viruses with 99% survival rates roaming the lands, with the addition of vaccines for the vulnerable, it really is time we regained our collective common sense and decided risk for ourselves.

I completely agree!

@Caramellatteplease

they don’t have any context of ‘other kids are having much worse procedures’.

That might be a good place to start, teaching them how luck they are in life. Understanding why you are doing the test that you are part of a community and that everyone can help each other is another option.

I certainly wouldn't be so "nice" a parent as to let my kids think screaming hysterically over something as invasive as picking your nose is normal.

My 2 year old who is currently being investigated for ASD doesn’t understand that others have it worse, as he doesn’t understand words.

@Lostinacloud

If we all just said no and stopped testing we’d get out of this crap faster. Only symptomatic unwell people need testing on arrival at a healthcare facility to check if that’s what making them ill do they can receive the appropriate treatment. For everyone else, it’s just a bug like most others and if you feel ill you’ll naturally want to stay in bed and away from others anyway. I’m sick of it, we all coped before when there were viruses with 99% survival rates roaming the lands, with the addition of vaccines for the vulnerable, it really is time we regained our collective common sense and decided risk for ourselves.

I’m at a point now where I agree too. Otherwise it will never end. How long will people agree to keep test for when they have no symptoms? Months.? Years?

Nope.

Just do it when they're asleep, why the drama?

@Lostinacloud

If we all just said no and stopped testing we’d get out of this crap faster. Only symptomatic unwell people need testing on arrival at a healthcare facility to check if that’s what making them ill do they can receive the appropriate treatment.

Yeah, that worked brilliantly in Spring 2020. Covid disappeared then.

[quote DumplingsAndStew]@Lostinacloud

If we all just said no and stopped testing we’d get out of this crap faster. Only symptomatic unwell people need testing on arrival at a healthcare facility to check if that’s what making them ill do they can receive the appropriate treatment.

Yeah, that worked brilliantly in Spring 2020. Covid disappeared then.[/quote]
It doesn't disappear with the tests, and it won't.

My 2 year old who is currently being investigated for ASD doesn’t understand that others have it worse, as he doesn’t understand words.

That was in the context of neurotypical kids. Much harder and more complex with ASD. Then you're into makaton, pecs, social stories etc to try and make it work. At that point your success is going to be down to how able your child (and you!) is with those interventions and how good whoever prepares those material is. DS would have managed it at that age, but we were both good with makaton and had a awesome well experienced lady who made resources. Some of our young friends wouldn't.

I've only tested my dd when there's been reason to i.e she's had a cold or there's been an outbreak at school. It is a horrible test and there's no way I would test her that regularly. She's 8

I don’t believe in LFTs any more. If one of us has any symptoms (not just the government list but at all unwell) I will PCR. Otherwise thanks but no thanks.

I saw this graph today. The UK is testing way more than other countries. No wonder we're picking up more cases. Or are we testing more because cases are higher?

Chicken or egg.

@Lostinacloud

If we all just said no and stopped testing we’d get out of this crap faster. Only symptomatic unwell people need testing on arrival at a healthcare facility to check if that’s what making them ill do they can receive the appropriate treatment. For everyone else, it’s just a bug like most others and if you feel ill you’ll naturally want to stay in bed and away from others anyway. I’m sick of it, we all coped before when there were viruses with 99% survival rates roaming the lands, with the addition of vaccines for the vulnerable, it really is time we regained our collective common sense and decided risk for ourselves.

Well said.

And no, I don't routinely test. For my 4 year old it's akin to abuse she gets so distressed. This is despite DH doing it twice weekly for work.

@DumplingsAndStew and @TheChip, I’m not suggesting covid will disappear if everybody stopped testing. However, perhaps there would be the opportunity to get away from the endless doom and scaremongering and threat of new restrictions and closures always looming around the corner. It really is time to put covid into perspective. It’s never going away, it is 99% survivable in most cases and for those who are vulnerable there is huge awareness and of course the vaccines.

@TheChip - apologies I didn’t mean to tag you in that last post.

Our DC and our friend's DCs don't find them distressing. Even the ones with anxiety are happy to get LFTs and PCRs as necessary. imo, on a scale of medical interventions, LFTs are one of the least upsetting.

I am not going to traumatise my child 'for the greater good' in full hotfuzz style lunacy.

The decision not to vaccinate under 12 means they will need to get covid at some point. They need to all get it, relatively quickly otherwise it will drag the entire problem in education on and on unnecessarily. They have to catch it from someone to get natural immunity strangely enough).

The R is currently hovering around 1. As long as its there and there isnt expenantial growth, then seriously that's what we should be doing until its gone through the school population.

I can't understand the mentality of distressing children over this. Distressing them over medical tests could give them long term fear of healthcare and damage trust with care givers and medics. (We understand how women suffer trauma in child birth - not necessarily from the physical side of birth but also from the psychological side of loss of control and this has long term effects so this isn't an unknown phenomenon. And Covid tests are invasive).