daughter getting blood drawn.....help!

Hi, my 8 year old needs to get her blood drawn in the morning. She is terrified! She won't even let us take a sliver out.
She is kinda a fearful child. We have really been working on it, but with this I don't know how to ease her fears because she knows it will hurt. Just telling her that she was going to get her blood drawn put her into a panic and she started crying and ran to her room and hid under her blankets.
When she got her flu shot last year she completly freaked out!! She screamed at the top of her lungs, kicked and fought. It took the nurse, myself and my sister to hold her down while the nurse gave her the shot. I'm so scared she will react this way again. I'm taking my husband along with us to help, but I'm pretty sure that she will kick and fight the nurse again. Getting a shot is one thing because it is pretty fast, but with getting her blood drawn she needs to hold still and not fight. I'm afraid that she will really hurt herself by fighting. (not to mention hurting the nurse)
We have tried a million differnt ways to try and comfort her and help her not be so afraid, but nothing that we say helps her. As a last resort we even tried bribbing her and even that didn't work. She actualy offered to give us all of her allowance money to not get blood drawn.
Does anybody know how I can prevent this from happening and to ease her fears? I just don't know what to do. It's not an option to wait on this. I really need some help with this one.

[pertykitty]

im sorry nalla kids with needle fears is scary. when my son was very young he had his blood drawn. we went to do it at the childrens hosp. they used a very small needle that had a small tube that ran down into another tube to collect the blood. so they really couldnt see it. he also sat on his dads lap. my only sugg is having someone who is very good and much experienced with kids. does she have a favorite stuffed animal or something? maybe a great nurse can get her to be brave. they do deal with this everyday im sure. i hope everything is ok with her, and her experience isnt too traumatic for her, or you. let me know how things went :)

[Mozartcowgirl]

my son was 7 when he had his first blood draw...
here is what I did.. because he was VERY afraid...

I bought him a camera... a disposable one... i let him control EVERY part of the trip to the lab.... he took alot of pictures..and i also took pics of him getting his blood drawn.. we made it a very neat trip... plus.. i didnt lie to him.. i never lied and said things like. oh. it wont hurt.. it DOES kinda hurt.!!!  i get my blood drawn every other week.. and to me.. it DOES hurt some.. depending on the lab tech . my son took many pictures.. cried some.. BE PATIENT>. but.. if you get to where there is NO consoling your daughter.. and everything you try doesnt work.. then.. well.. you will just have to hold her down.. and let them draw the blood.. dont get mad.. be very normal.. act like its not a big thing.. i had to do that with my other son..
every child is different.. and you will never know how they are going to act until that very cruscial moment..lol..with robert the camera control thing worked.. and he was A SPAZ  about needles.. however.. my other son Gage who was all calm and cool.. freaked out.. and well.. mom had had enough.. we ended up holding him down.. then.. after a few seconds.. he chilled out... after.. her ealized it wasnt so bad..

good luck..!!

[RockRose]

The thing is,  getting blood drawn doesn't really hurt.  Doing belly flops into the pool  or "bailing out" of a swing hurts MUCH worse!   Clapping really vigorously hurts,  and combing wet hair hurts.  It's all in how you view things.

It's the whole psychological needle thing.    It might be too late to teach her this,  but when all three of my kids were really young,  we had a thing about not changing the expression on your face if you got a shot.  That was the game - and the other kids would watch,  and if you didn't change facial expression,  you "won".  

She may be too old to teach that needles are nothing,  but it's worth a try.  Has she ever seen you have blood drawn?  Often if you act like it's nothing,  (and it IS nothing,  really!) they usually stop making such a fuss.

Best wishes.

[tiredbuthappy]

i can relate, since i have an actual needle phobia too.
by the way.. i'm doing a bit better because of butterfly needles. i told my doctor that i need to have blood drawn to get life insurance, and he actually gave me some pediatric butterfly needles to give the guy to use.
but i gotta say, if this is a true phobia, there isn't much you can say or do that will calm her down. my typical reaction was panic attacks and nightmares before hand (sometimes for weeks). once i finally went through the process, i would pass out. after coming to, i would usually throw up. very traumatic. (and this was when i was in my teens and 20's!) we tried valium, and it helped a little. i was so convinced it would help me, i didn't have the panic attacks beforehand. and after instead of losing full consciousness, i kinda only went halfway with the blurred vision and ringing in the ears.

i rationalized, meditated, did everything in my power to convince myself that needles are safe. but you can't rationalize a phobia. which is why i think that no matter what you tell her, i don't think it will calm her down. for the future, you may not want to tell her in advance. even now, my ob's nurse knows not to let me that i'll be having a blood test when i go in. in fact, that's what helped me start to get over my phobia. i went to the dr's office when i found out i was pregnant to see if they'd take me as a new patient. they said sure, and that they'd want a blood sample asap. i didn't have time to build up the anxiety.

[anxiousmomtobe?]

And if you have to get blood drawn in the future, take her along.  I take my 3 year old with me all the time.  He actually thinks it's interesting.

The butterfly needle is great.  It truly doesn't hurt like a regular needle.  Even when a student takes your blood.

[myproblem]

Ask them to use a butterfly needle. That's what pertykitty was talking about. It is a smaller needle, and if they have to change tubes, she won't feel it. Other than that, my only suggestion is laughing gas. I don't know if they do that or not, but it would work.

[mary1678]

Hi,
I work in a lab and draw childrens blood all the time. Make sure that you are not nervous about getting it done to. Kids seem to have a better time at it when their parents are not a nervous wreck. Make sure that who ever is drawing your childs blood has had experience with kids.  Make sure they do use the butterfly needle.  Also make sure that their are two phelbotomists in the room so you don't have to hold your childs arm down. You don't want her to be mad at you for holding her arm down.  Having blood drawn for the first time is not easy for you or your child just make the most of it and have some type of reward for having it done.  Just stay calm and so will she. Don't try and explain to her what is going to happen thinking about it only makes it worse and the more tense she gets her veins will be tense to making it harder for the tech to get the blood.  I hope everything goes well for you and your daughter. Good luck!