Sedation for blood test for teenager?

[Thisisarubbishusername]

Has anyone’s teenager been given nasal or other sedation at an NHS hospital to allow a blood test to be administered to a severely phobic teen? Our son needs blood tests but has a severe phobia of fainting during/after the procedure, after having fainted before. I’m not sure that all the CBT, distraction, preparation and other techniques he’s trying are going to be enough. Thank you.

Thanks for sharing your knowledge/experience. I’m afraid I draw the line at restraint.

the endocrine team have requested the bloods so he definitely needs them.

finger prick might be an option as a last resort

@Thisisarubbishusername One of mine outgrew her fear of needles with my support. The other's has persisted into adulthood. No way would tough love alone be effective. She uses emla (or orajel, in a pinch) and sublingual ativan.

Please try a call with your GP. I have a really understanding GP who actually has struggles with blood tests herself and has been really great exploring different solutions with me. She totally understands it's a phobia I struggle to control.

Lovely. I'm sure that would be brilliant morale for the children there.

Good for you. Tough love doesn’t work on phobias. It just makes it worse because phobias aren’t rational - they’re part of the animal, instinctive part of the brain.

Blood injection injury phobia is the only phobia to have a physiological reaction (fainting).

I find your reaction to a frightened child quite disgusting. When someone’s parent dies you don’t say ‘well X’s child died and that was worse’. When someone loses their job you don’t say ‘well some people are homeless so shut up’. It’s such a cold, inhuman reaction to a child scared of a medical test.

My youngest feels faint and sometimes passes out when she gives blood. She still insists on doing it but uses a permanent site in the city, her records show it and she is treated separately and promptly.