Daughter dreading blood test any advice

[daisysue2]

My 10 year old ASD daugher is having a blood test on Friday. Does anyone have any tips as she is highly anxious and I have told her about it and she is very anxious.

Ds has lots of blood tests, has a needle phobia and gets very anxious.

Have you tried the numbing cream?

They usually have a team who deal with children, who are very good, have you been told about them?

Will she have the bloodtest in a paediatric clinic? The paediatric phlebots ( cant spell it - but the ones that take the blood) are usually very good at getting children at ease. They often work in pairs so one does the distracting!
The 'magic cream' (knumbing cream)usually has to be put on in advance (can't remember an hour?) with a plaster patch over the top. It leaves ds arm a bit itchy later as it wears off. Distraction is useful- ( get her to do something like think of something like reminding her of a treat or asking her a question at the right second) or a chewy sweet perhaps. But how to relax her in the hour before - music, nintendo?

Thank you for the advice really good to know about the magic cream and I will take a packet of sweets.

Make sure she is lovely and warm too. It makes their veins easier to access.

You can get the emla cream from your GP on prescription. I use it as I'm really phobic about blood tests.

IME it needs to be on for longer than an hour to feel nothing - but that could be just b/c I have leathery old skin . I also like to listen to my ipod as a distraction.

My son has to have bloods done regularly, but he still hates it! We use emla cream at least an hour before, and put in on in several places incase they can't get a vien up. We use distaction by holding a book/Portable DVD Player either to the opposite side, or so that it covers the site of the needle, so its harder for him to see it.
He hates it, and I'm afraid we do use the 'be a good boy and you can have' [usually a Hot-Wheels or small box of Lego!] tactic. Probably not right, but it works for us, and what the hell, they're little, its scary and loads of adults hate it too!!

dd2 had to go for allergy testing last year and I thought they would use the cream but they actually used some numbing spray which worked in half the time of the cream.

Any chance you remember what it was called/looked like, I want to get some!!!

sorry it was done at the hospital never come across it before honestly thought they'd just take the bloods without any numbing as she was 13.