Blood tests for small children

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Hi,

I wondered if I could ask about blood tests for small children?

My son is 6 years old, a bit anxious and quite feisty. Ideally we'd like to have him blood tested for anaemia and coeliac disease, but we can't as he is afraid of needles and would fight and scream if we tried to do the blood test.

We have seen pediatricians and all sorts of other people and they have all commented that he is definitely not ASD or anything like that, and just "very very bright".

I wondered though - would it be usual that a feisty 6 year old should be still difficult with medical procedures, without actually needing special needs assessment? He is due to have a filling in his tooth too which I know is going to be a battle, and refuses to have glue ear test equipment put into his ear to test his hearing, which really does need tested.

I would really be glad to know if this is usual 6 year old behaviour or if I should be looking for advice on it.

Thanks!

My 6 year old had a blood test a couple of years ago, it was done at the hospital and it was really good the way they did it. The waiting area had a table football and toys and they put some numbing cream on his arm in there without him noticing that much, then when we went in there were two nurses and they positioning a book so he was looking at it and couldn't really see his right arm. One nurse was showing him the book whilst the other took the blood without him
Even seeing the needle.

That does sound good. Our guy doesn't work with that sort of thing. He always wants to know what's going on and trying to trick him never ever works.

Have you been for the blood tests, or are concerned about going due to his reaction to other procedures?
My DD is very like your DS - always wants to know exactly what's going on. So the nurse let her watch, explained everything to her, before, during and after.
We go to the children's hospital for blood tests - the nurses are amazing and adapt their approach to the child (they were much more like gatergolf's nurses with one of my other DC).
I'd say having a bloodtest is easier than a filling or something to do with ears for a child who likes to be in control and know what's going on, as they can see what's happening properly.

Melawati we went to the hospital and met the play therapist, but ds was adamant that he didn't want the blood test, and it was clear that we were going to have to use heavy physical restraint if we wanted to get it done. The pediatrician said that he seemed fairly well to her and that keeping him as he was would be fine rather than traumatising him.

We decided just to give him readybrek and rice krispies to get him supplemental iron and see how that went. He'd previously only been getting 1mg a day of dietary iron and he's now getting 10.5 so I figured it would be worth doing the experiement and seeing what sort of a change that brought about.

The school is on our case because this is the first bug he's got since the improvement in diet.

Children are so individual and as a nurse who had to do some procedures on children I can say your child isn't that unusual. In your case I would try some really in depth explanations so that he wants to cooperate. If he needs a coeliac test then really try the anatomy and physiology approach and how he may feel better etc. Obviously all the numbing creams etc.

DS2 is 3 and has had 2 blood tests, ear tests, cut on his eyebrow steristripped, chest X-ray, and several other things medically and he sits still and never bats an eyelid, even when we can see it's clearly painful. When he had his vaccinations he looked at the nurse indignantly and said, ow that hurts!