Tell them you want a Pediatric Blood Drawer (sorry the correct name has escaped me at the moment) That is what we always did for our daughter when she was younger. She always refused to get anywhere near the table they always laid her on when you put her onto it. I couldn’t even change her in a public bathroom on the change tables, because she was so traumatized. Most of the trauma for them in our experience is being held down. One nurse would hold her arms and the other her legs while they took her blood. That would scare anyone I think.

When she turned 2, they had her sit on her Dad’s lap in the lab (just like an adult would do) and they took her blood that way. It did way better for her, she was able to see what was going on.

When they took our daughters blood last month (she is 3 now), I asked them to please sit her up. They didn’t believe me that she would do much better that way. They sat her on my lap with a pillow under her arm for support. They held her arm out to steady it, and the only time she really had a problem with it was when they initially stuck her. She kind of got teary eyed but that was it. We talked to her and kind of made it a game of sorts. We tried keeping her mind on other things and she did wonderfully.

Sherry