Heel Prick Test

[Rose1999]

My 6 day old won’t bleed for the heel prick test and it’s worrying me. Has anyone else been in this situation?

What's worrying you about it? Worse case scenario a clinician could take a spot of blood from elsewhere as it's not the precise location that's important.

I’m a midwife and this happens all the time and we have to repeat the blood test again
really common nothing to worry about make sure you put socks on the baby keep their feet warm

I do these and second what the mw above has said, its really common. Does baby have jaundice at all? This can impact on how easy blood spots are. Keep baby's feet nice and warm for next time they do it, and if they cry it will be easier too, but obviously we can't control that.

They tried for two days but failed as her feet were cold. If they fail again, what will happen?

Give the baby a huge feed just before the midwife visits (if they ring you in advance) and feed him during the heel prick too. You could try doing skin to skin just before the test too (while the mw is doing all the preamble chat before doing the test).

Make sure you don't do the weighing before the heel prick. Because he'll get cold during weighing.

My baby has occasionally got blue feet during a nappy change (it's a bit scary!) but it's easy to get him warm again, just skin to skin and loads of feeding

Ps we just did our heel prick test this morning! My baby must be the same age as yours

Edit - sorry, should have said She not He, didn't read your op properly

My little one didn't bleed the first attempt, either, the mw filled a surgical glove with warm water and used it to press against his other foot to warm it up before trying again and that worked!

The hospital used to struggle to get my daughter blood o2 reading at that age due to cold feet. The nurses used to get a rubber glove filled with warm (not hot) water and place it on her foot. You could also dip their feet in warm water before the appointment. No warmer than 37oC for that age.

My partner doesn't bleed. He got banned from trying to give blood and nothing came out and he barely bled 2 drops when he had a down to the bone cut on his hand. The receptionist at a and e was looking very skeptical about his story until he showed her. If he has blood tests he makes sure he's warm and had food/drink.