Comfort Plan for Blood Tests
Kids (3-11) Tweens & Teens (12+) Blood tests Breathing and calming Comfort positions Distraction Getting ready for a procedure Needle Pokes Numbing creams and sprays Telling your child what will happen Vibration and cold Procedural Pain Blood tests Breathing and calming Comfort positions Distraction Getting ready for a procedure Needle pokes Numbing creams and sprays Pain Management Telling your child what will happen Vibration and cold
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About This Resource
Blood tests are one of the most common needle procedures kids go through, and often a major source of stress for everyone involved. Going in with a solid coping plan helps kids use evidence-based strategies to feel more comfortable and in control. This worksheet walks kids through the many choices that are theirs to make, like where they sit, using numbing cream, what they focus on, whether they watch or not. Digital tools like SuperMeg are great, but sometimes it helps to fill something out together, on paper, before the day arrives.
How To Use This Resource
Have your child fill it out before the appointment. A few days ahead is ideal — it’s usually a calmer conversation than the morning of — but filling it out in the waiting room still helps. It gives kids a chance to work through any worried feelings, figure out how they want to cope, and give them (and you) a chance to practice the strategies they want to use. Parents are often tempted just to not mention anything until they are already on the way to the lab, but it’s a bad idea because it deprives kids of a chance to use their skills to cope. A blood test is an opportunity to conquer a challenge and manage their fear.
The point is the sense of choice and control, which lowers anxiety and makes the process go more smoothly for everyone. Bring it with you and show the person doing the blood test so they can follow the plan.
Who Is This For
Kids, parents, and providers.
Digital Tool
SuperMeg Poke Planner
Have no fear, SuperMeg is here! This interactive tech helps your child create a plan for being more calm and comfortable during needle pokes.
Downloads
Printable Comfort Poke Plan for Kids
We all do better with a plan! Use this to help kids create one of their very own before their next poke.
Downloads
Comfort Positioning Guide
Learn comfort positions that allow you to calm and comfort your child while keeping them safe!
Downloads
Guide to Topical Anesthetics and Numbing Cream
Learn what you need to know about numbing cream!
A Note About Keeping This Free
Good pain care should be a right, not a privilege.
We’ve spent our careers treating pain and medical anxiety, and we know that comfort and control come from putting the power where it belongs: in your hands. Everything here is free and open source by design. No parent should have to pay to learn how to get their child through a vaccine or a bad headache. No provider should have to hunt for what they need to do their job well. Hundreds of thousands of people have used Meg tools, and not one of them has ever been asked to pay.
But free still costs something.
We rely on the generosity of people like you to keep it that way. It takes about 1 in 30 of us, each giving $15 a month, to keep these tools available for free. If they helped you and you’re able, $15 a month keeps these resources available the next time you or another family need them.
Thanks for being here. Whether you are able to give or not, I’m so grateful a kid somewhere has you in their corner.
— Dr. Jody, Founder and CEO
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