i need help... ds is petrified of hospitals

[saladsandwich]

ds needs a blood test this week, i have to take him on my own but he is an absolute nightmare, hes just tuning 3 but he is scared stiff, he use to be fine but hes been scared by a dr who hurt him once badly.

he is worse with blood tests, he had some done 2 weeks ago and and he kicked off so much it took 3 of us (me,dr,nurse) he battled with us, there was blood everywhere, he ended up worse his arms where black where they had been.

if anyone has any tips to ease his fears i'd be glad for them, they have tried distracting him in the past, even the cream scares him, he use to be fine so i think its just the bad experience thats done him... he hates me for a week when he's had them done

Poor thing :(

I dont know if a social story around hospital visit might work for his age?

Tell him your plans and bribe him with a gift that you know he is going to want at the end of the hospital visit? Keep mentioning it saying not long now before we get etc etc

Bag of chocolate buttons? Let him put the cream on mummy himself have some buttons then on himself followed by more buttons?

I dont really know what else to suggest. Its awful when they have had a bad experience previously.

if this is likely to be a recurring situation, i would ask the hospital if you can visit and get one of their play staff to go through it with him.

if it's likely to be the last one, i'd just brazen it out tbh. poor wee man.

dd2 was similarly hysterical (in her case it was triggered by weighted blankets, dark rooms and hip x-rays ) but she has grown out of it now.

reason helps a lot, and he's just too little to be reasoned with properly. if he's scared, he's scared. the hospital will have seen it all before though, so do ask their advice.

at one point it took 5 of us (including the biggest orderly i've ever seen) to hold dd2 still to sedate her prior to ga. she was still screaming blue murder when she was out.

sympathies. it's rough. hope he's ok x

hi thanks for the replies... tey've put it off till next week, dreading it... he always gets a bribe, something small before and something after but he has so many, this is his second in 2 weeks.

the dr said it was an extreme reaction he had from a bad experience. he falls out with me for ages after so i know he blames me, i try explaining in ver simple terms it will make him feel better and hopefully he wont need any more soon after next weeks he will be back 6 weeks after that, its been every 12 weeks lately :(

think i'm going to warn them as soon as i get there how bad he is and just tke it from there but they will definitely need a few people

thanks again x