After having had the morning from hell at the hospital, is there any way to make blood tests on children easier?

[Aimsmum]

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I know. They told me it was really urgent (he was quite ill) & I didn't know about the spray option. Then they didn't even bother to give him the antibiotics for another hour because he went back to sleep. . We had to remind them to give them to him. I could go on and on about that particular hospital... Blackburn Queens Park if anybody else ever has the pleasure!

The spray is extremely cold so imo works better on bigger children who understand that it will be very cold but that this will make it numb. Little ones just get a fright with the shock of the cold spray and then get upset about that.

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DS just come out of hospital after two weeks and two operations under general anaesthetic .
He had LOTS of blood tests in that time, using both the spray and the cream. Both seemed to work pretty well.
Anyway, my big tip is get a phlebotomist to draw the blood if you can - they are the real specialists, better and quicker than nurses (and definitely better than the doctors).

My DS who is 2 has to have blood taken every couple of weeks to monitor drug levels and liver function after a liver transplant last year. He had a permanent line in for quite a while but it was taken out just before Christmas and since then they have had to take blood from his little arms. I practiced before hand with a plastic syringe so he would be familiar with what they were going to do . We also pretended to take blood from his toy lion and let him pretend to take blood from me and DH. It really seemed to have helped as he sits on my knee, completely calm (I make sure I'm calm too), they have a play specialist who helps with distraction, using bubbles and toys. Sometimes he doesn't even notice the needle going in and coming out. Sometimes he gives one little cry as it goes in, then is very easily distracted and forgets all about it.

I know he's much younger and I have probably been lucky in that I could almost brainwash him that it doesn't hurt. They don't use any cream or spray on him either. Maybe you could try practicing before hand and also try some sort of reward system. Hope it goes better next time.