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Hints
and Tips for Parents and Carers |
Use
the book at home to talk about your experience.
When your child is lifting the flaps and looking
at the images talk about: who your Doctor
is, what they look like, and if your child
doesn’t have a blood test, chat about
their procedure instead. Try to point out
any similarities and differences of your child’s
experience to that of Sandy’s. |
At hospital -
magic cream (the anaesthetic cream) takes
the pain of any needles piercing the skin,
but to keep the child’s mind
distracted you might like to try:
blowing bubbles (this also calming due to
taking deep breaths to blow the bubbles) or
a glove puppet / favourite toy to play ‘peep-oh´
and divert the child from looking at the needle.
(NB Please check where you can use bubble
mixture in your hospital, even if only in
the car park it may help). |
Children
can also be frightened by the tourniquet
elastic as much as the needle. We found that
tightly holding a sweet, or bread stick, in
a fist, with the promise of eating it after
the procedure, helps ‘pump up the vein’
and makes it slightly quicker for the blood
to be taken. NB Do not let the child eat anything
before, lying down, or whilst distressed,
due to the chocking hazard. |
Afterwards,
time for rewards! Your child might
like a particular plaster or stickers. Be
prepared with something you know they will
like. The odd bit of bribery doesn’t
do any harm. It is important for children
to have a positive memory of their time at
hospital, which may mean working with your
play therapist to make something, or colour
in and glitter, to give a more positive angle
on the day for your child. |
Collecting medicine
from the pharmacy can extend your hospital
visit, so remember to time your rewards (colouring-in,
or producing a different toy) to extend into
this part of the visit as well. Everyone will
be keen to get home as quickly as possible
and the wait for medicines, needs to be a
positive end to the whole hospital visit. |
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Thinking
about it is worse than the event – |
For
children who know what to expect at a blood
test, it isn’t fear of the unknown that
causes them their distress, but often the
result of a bad experience. Good preparation
and helping your child to relax can make all
the difference. |
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Things
to think about are: |
When
does you child need to be told he or she is
going to go to hospital? A few days before?
On the day? |
Introduce
a visit to hospital for their toys?
What should teddy do to distract him from
the situation?
Magic Cream – using
a local anaesthetic cream on the day can really
help, but can take nearly an hour to work.
This can add to the anticipation and build
up of fear of the event, but for others can
be calming – which sort of child
is yours? |
Work
on a relaxation technique –
either breathing and blowing, or may-be a
imaginary glove that takes away any pain and
makes your arms floppy. Ask your nursery school
/ or class teacher to introduce a hospital
theme to help talk more openly about hospitals
and what happens there. There may
be other children who visit hospital in the
same class, you may be unaware of. |
www.actionforsickchildren.org.uk
produces some great leaflets for parents to
help their child with pain and also needle
phobias. |