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Original poster

Children's blood tests - horrible experience today

22 replies

IlanaK · 06/10/2005 21:18

Ds1 needed a blood test today. He is 4 and it is his first (not including at birth). We went to the local peadiatric department in the hospital. I had explained to him what would happen. He asked me if they put their hand in his arm to get the blood and I explained about the needle. I said it would hurt, but it would be over quickly and he could have a lolly.

ONce there, I found out about this cream they use to numb their arm. Wonderful I thought! HE hated having the cream put on, but I explained to him it would mean he didn't have to have any pain when they took the blood. We were told it would take 30 minutes to work. But 20 minutes later his skin was reacting to the cream so they took it off. They told me it was not a problem though. An hour later when it was finally our turn (ugh) he sat on my knee no problem at all. He was not scared. But when they put the needle in, he screamed - and I mean a high pitched horrible in pain scream.

I am really angry about it. I feel like I lied to him telling him it would n ot hurt. I questioned them about what the point was about having the cream if it hurt anyway. They said his viens were deep and he needed the cream being on much longer. WHen I pointed out that he reacted to the cream, they said there was one for sensitive skin. Well why didn't they just use that in the first place?????

And the other thing that really wound me up was the nurse telling him (through his screams) to "watch the ribena coming out" ?!?!?! Why would there be Ribena in his arm??? I spent time talking it all through to him before going and telling him they were taking blood - and they tell him its ribena?????

Please tell me that not all blood taking experiences are like this.

OP posts:

MamaG · 06/10/2005 21:21

Thats disgusting I bet you're really upset.

My DD had a blood test when she was 4 - your first para is exactly what I did.

I was not offered any cream, but luckily for us our DD was straight in, despite there being a huge queue when we got there, and it was over fairly quickly. Yes, it hurt, but I had told her it would, just like you did in para 1.

If I were you, I'd put a complaint in to the hospital, they should not have treated you or your DS like that.

KBear · 06/10/2005 21:24

That's awful. And the Ribena thing - ridiculous.

My DD had her first blood test last week (she's 6) and I told her it would hurt and it did even with the cream (pointless IMO, made no difference so don't feel bad about that). Although as she's older she understood better than a 4 year old (I have one of those too and he would have screamed the place down too!).

They could certainly have handled it better and made sure an expert took the blood as it was a child.

aloha · 06/10/2005 21:33

My ds (same age) liked the cream, didn't bat an eyelid at having blood taken and would have been v amused at the idea of it being Ribena. I think all children are different and maybe your son is a bit unusual re pain etc. They will have done this a lot. I'm really sorry you had a horrible experience, but I can guarantee that it doesn't always hurt. My advice is always to pop some chocolate in their mouth the very second the needle goes it. Works perfectly with my ds, who sometimes doesn't even look down he's so pleased.

yowlingmonster · 06/10/2005 22:07

DS is only one and has to have blood taken on a reasonably regular basis, he starts to panic when we go to the clinic and nothing short of holding him firm and just getting on with it helps, he has never had cream and has just graduated from having a little shunt that is put in his hand and the drops collected from this to proper needle in the arm type tests. It is horrible and I think that with older children the nurses just do their best to try and keep the child from too much distress. It is annoying when things go differently to what you have told your child but in the end you just have to say "mummy was wrong, I thought it would be the way I said and it wasnt, you were very brave for getting the blood taken, I could see it hurt alot" and then just move on.

colditz · 06/10/2005 22:14

Re the Emla crem...

Put it on 2 hours before any further needles. then you can demontrate to him the numbness.

30 minutes is NOT long enough for emla to work, it says so clearly in the instructions, it must be on for at least an hour before it works properly on anyone, and the nurse should have known this!! I totally sympathise, I have deep veins, crap circulation and a needle phobia, and blood tests do damn well hurt.

I second Aloha with the enormous chunk of warmish chocolate. It is a time to let the rules of nutrition fly, IMHO. Can he count? can you get the nurse to say when to count to, and get him to count through the chocolate? (The midwives have to do that with me)

Poor your ds, and poor you.

lanismum · 06/10/2005 22:26

it was probably ametop cream, this takes 30mins to work, but does give a lot of kids a reaction, if it makes the skin puffy, it can be more difficult to find a vein, and the nurse/phlebotomist may have 'dug' around with the needle looking for a vein, this does hurt, as the cream would only numb the 1st few layers of skin even if it had been left on for long enough, if your little boy needs more blood tests, tell them he reacted to the ametop, and ask for emla, this takes an hour to work, but he shouldnt react to it, also, it may have been the plastic sticky window they put over the ametop that made his skin react, so next time ask for cling film over the cream, with a bandage to hold it on. you could also try asking for aother member of staff to take his blood, maybe one with more experience with children?

rummum · 06/10/2005 22:34

Daughter used to have lots of blood tests when she was younger as she was anaemic... we used the emla cream, left of for about an hour and I can honestly say that it didn't hurt her...
She would sit on my lap .. me with vice grip at the ready, and I would pop a chocolate button in her mouth when the needle went in... and she didn't ever flinch...
me I would be giddy and feeling sick

definately ask for the Elma next time... if you can get him there..

foxinsocks · 07/10/2005 09:52

it's quite common to have a reaction to ametop - however, it's used because it works so much quicker than the other one.

dd's whole arm went bright red and swelled up when she had that put on and therefore, they could not even see a vein through her skin because it was so puffy (they ended up taking it from her foot with 3 nurses + me holding her down).

Having blood taken from a child is awful but I always thought it would be bad so I guess I was prepared for it!

3PRINCESSES · 07/10/2005 10:03

My DD had a condition called ITP which meant she had to have blood tests every couple of days for a few weeks. She was mildly allergic to both emla and ametop, both of which gave her a hot, itchy rash, and I found that was the worst bit about having the blood test. But every time we went we had to go through the same palaver with the staff about insisting that we didn't want the cream, and found that quite often they were really sniffy and unsympathetic with her after that. The test itself only lasts a minute, but the hour of burning and itching before and several hours afterwards with the cream was much worse, and I really resented being made to feel I was being cruel by saying I didn't want her to have it!

Is he going to have to go back and have more tests, Ilana?

Original poster

IlanaK · 07/10/2005 21:52

I hope not. But I will keep all of this in mind for the future. I have very sensitive skin so I am not suprised (in hindsight) that he was reacting to the cream. I think it would probably be wise next time not to have any. It was such a long wait anyway.

OP posts:

aloha · 07/10/2005 21:53

chocolate rules for all injections/blood tests - everything. Sugar is a natural painkiller anyway - it really is!

princesspeahead · 07/10/2005 21:57

all the creams are useless IMO (ds1 been having blood tests at least every 4 months since birth and he is 5 now). for future ref they have a cold spray that numbs everything for long enough to get the needle in which is better than nothing. and the fact that it is so cold distracts them a bit. but the simple fact is that some people are very good at taking blood and lots more aren't, dig around, etc etc. Nothing you can do about that except stop the procedure if it isn't working and demand that someone else do it.

Ribena is stupid though. We always say that we want to check that his blood is still red and show huge relief that it isn't green or blue...!

aloha · 07/10/2005 21:59

Not blue PPH? Surely some mistake...

projectmanagerCOd · 07/10/2005 22:00

but soem kids do panica tt he idea of blood
so maybe it was done tiwht best intentions

princesspeahead · 07/10/2005 22:03

aloha

muminlondon · 07/10/2005 22:11

Like pph, we go regularly to hospital with dd for thyroid function blood tests - but she only just started using ametop cream at the last one (aged 2.3) at the nurse's insistence. Before, her hand was chubby enough not to feel the needle going in but she's a bit leaner now. I don't like the faff and the wait with ametop either so I sympathise. Did you have a 'play specialist' to distract him?

princesspeahead · 07/10/2005 22:17

mum, hope your dd is doing well. try the freezing spray next time - they do it once you are in the room and immediately take blood so it cuts your waiting time by an hour or so. and seems to work just as well, for my ds it does anyway.

and of course the trip to the machine afterwards to buy "whatever I want" (usually a twix) makes it almost all worthwhile - the only time he is allowed within 10 ft of a vending machine!

muminlondon · 07/10/2005 22:26

she's fine thanks, pph, great results for her last test - hope your ds is doing well too. have just cat'd you in fact (though it never seems to work!) because I only just saw a thread about where you posted on the dud generics. How awful that must have been.

The freezing spray does sound like a much better idea though our hospital didn't offer it to us last time.

princesspeahead · 07/10/2005 22:32

haven't got anything yet! yes, it was pretty awful, make sure they don't pull ,that one on you. has your dd always been on the same brand? poor boy, with hindsight he jus t wasn't right - kept throwing fevers which wouldn't go away, kept wetting himself, was incredibly clingy... I thought it was just a virus he couldn't throw off. Grrrrrr.

muminlondon · 07/10/2005 22:54

What a complete nightmare. We've had several different brands since dd was born - our paed doesn't specify a brand though it's the GP who writes the prescriptions. She's had 50mcg from a company called APS for the last few months - before that Alpharma (?). And we're now going 6 months between tests. How scary - was it picked up on a routine test ? [sorry about hijack]

princesspeahead · 07/10/2005 23:00

I would seriously try to stick to a single brand. they aren't all the same and as you say it is now quite a while between tests (we are on about 5 months. Even if you don't get such a dud batch as us, it is difficult to maintain levels and be sure about the right dose if the formulation is changing.

Yes, it was picked up on a routine test and I went back and counted how many tablets he had taken and he had been on the useless one for FORTY DAYS. I felt so awful for him. And angry!
Apparently his tablets were OK (therefore not dud as such) but he probably had difficulty dissolving the coating or something so they were just passing through him. Can't remember the name of the company though I'm afraid...!

Sorry for hijack too!

muminlondon · 07/10/2005 23:15

We still crush the pill in milk - think we'll keep doing that until we know we've got a test coming up and have discussed brands with the paed. Shudder - really feel for how shocking that must have been.
(sorry again, IlanaK)

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