Sweat test-What happens??

[wellbalanced]

My little boy has been having tests done as THEY say he's small. I dont i think he's perfectly fine and people comment on him being big!!

DS 22wk Weighs 14lb 9oz, quite long, Breastfeed, Happy, V alert, sleeping v well.
They've plotted his weight on a bottlefed chart so that itself is total rubbish!

After 2 blood tests and Doc cocking up on last one and really hurting him i really dont want any more needles!

obviuosly if he was ill he would have to have them but i see it as pointless.

Next step is Sweat test. What do they do?

My 5yo had a sweat test done the other week. I don't know if its different for babies but I'll tellyou what happened with my DS

They did the following to both arms:-

First they strapped on two discs to his arm. Each disc had a wire coming from it to a box and it sent a current through his arm, a bit like a TENS machine. He said it was tingly but didn't hurt. Then, they took off the discs and put a round thing (imagine a tiny flattish cup with a tube inside it) on his arm to collect the sweat, where ONE of hte discs had been. They trapped it to his arm. It had to be strapped tight and he said it hurt a bit. His arms went "mottled" in colour an dhe had to have it on for about 3/4 hour. Nurse said they would put bandages over on a baby so they couldn't pull/knock it off.

When the time was up, they undid the strap and released the cup, and hte sweat had collected up the tube in side the cup thing.

He had a few tiny burst blood vessels in his arm (pinpricks of red, not sore at all) and he didn't like having the cups strapped to his arms as they had to be strapped so tight, but he did manage to eat a chocolate bar so it can't have been too uncomfortable!

I do hope that makes sense!

wellbalanced, when DS was a baby, HV and docs said he was small. I can't remember his weight or anything but I was basically persuaded to stop BF him and put him on premature baby formula (he wasn't premature!) and we had lots of tests done. The result was "he's just thin"

I wish I hadn't listened TBH.

I would strongly advise you to ring one of the BF support lines, or try to speak to a BF counsellor in person (there may be a BF support group near you) and discuss it with them, see if they have any concerns about his weight gain - I wish i'd done that with my DS and saved us lots of unecessary tests.

WE moved house when he was 7mo and the new HV was furious at what had happened, said she would NEVER have allowed it to happen!

Hello.

Swet test expert here!

They will put a tiny bit of gel on your sons skin, usually top of the arm or wrist. (can be chubby thighs in little babies!) they will then put a little watch type thing over it and strap it on.

After about an hour they will remove it and take out the little plastic coil in the 'watch'.

It does leave a red mark but it doesn't hurt or sting. Some children feel a tingling sensation but that is all.

They often dont collect enough sweat and may need to restest, some hospitals do 2 tests anyway though just to get a difinitave result.

I shall assume they are testing for cf? at 22 weeks would he not have has it tester for in the heel prick test? Surley the blood test they didn't cock up would show it/

ugh sweat test obviously........

Oh you described it much better than me! Don't they do the TENS-type thing with babies?

My DS had a sweat test done at just over 1 as he had had prolonged chest infections.

It was just as others have described, and he was totally unworried by it.