I asked our Pediatrician for an Rx for EMLA, which our pharmacy filled with a generic Lidocaine cream (can’t remember at the moment if it was 2 or 4%).  I used it with 3M’s Tegaderm patches, and my son wound up with patches of raised, red skin that took 2 days to go away.

I want to spare him the pain of blood draws if I can, but now I’m scared of an even worse allergic reaction.

Has this happened to anyone else?  Any suggestions for alternatives?

P.S.  The skin looked fine at the blood draw about 2 hours after application; it didn’t become raised and red until 1-2 hours later;  3-4 hours after I’d applied it at home.