Baby Needs to Get Blood Drawn...Now What
Do not do this! Butterfly Needle...Poked in the arm multiple times! Ouch!
Do the heel stick...easier :)
This will save your new born baby, and YOU, from crying. Wish I knew this earlier
Bottom line: If you need to get blood drawn from your new born, if you can, have them do a heel stick or prick.
When my daughter was a couple weeks old I took her to the get her blood drawn.
She was small a baby, our first, but I was also a first time Dad and had no idea what to expect. I just new my Wife, Julie Anne, wouldn't be able to handle our Baby getting pinned by a needle. I had to go.
Should've Done Some Research
Not knowing there was other options, they began to tell me how they're going draw blood using a butter fly needle which is meant for kids bec it's flexible and short.
What I didn't know was that Babies veins are extremely small and it's very had to hit a the vein with the needle.
We discovered this the hard way.
When they began, they tried to find the vein. I tried to calm my new born down as they stabbed the 1" needle in her arm and missed. They took it out and did it again...missed...and again...and again. 7 times to be exact.
Then they called the other nurse in to try....and again a miss. She tried multiple times and missed.
Baby was crying. Going crazy. I was going crazy.
"OK. OK. Enough" I said as I quickly scooped up by Baby.
Here's the kicker...It was completely unnecessary.
"Sorry we like to do it this way because it's faster."....wait for it.
"We can just prick the heel and get the blood"....What the !?!
I was shocked. The only reason we're doing this is to save time!
We could've saved everyone some tears, heartache and headache.
"I have all day" is what I told them.
Heel Stick
This was less traumatizing for everyone...Baby and me!
They first warm up the area with a heat pack so there'll be blood circulation at the heal. Then they use a small need to prick the heel and then squeeze the area so that blood dribbles out. They'll then use a scooper to collect the blood in a vile.
Yes it takes longer. But yes it's easier on everyone. After about 15 min they had the vials of blood.
More Tips
- Make sure Baby is hydrated so the blood isn't thick.
- Be calm - Baby will sense your fear.
- Make sure Baby is calm.
- Call ahead and make sure someone has baby (not kids or toddlers) experience.
- Leave the Band Aid on afterword.
- Be aware that not situations can you use the heel stick method. If not use a butterfly needle which is not necessarily a smaller thinner needle just more flexible and shorter to easily find the vein.
- Have a positive attitude to the technician/ phlebotomist - They're their to help and most often then not they have experience with infants.