This reminded me of circ.

[Claire and Boys]

My 2 yo DS had to have celiac testing last week. It is very hard to find his veins partly because he has severe eczema which apparently causes the skin to be puffy where they wanted to insert the needle. After 4 attempts they finally put the needle in his foot.

What made me think of circ though was, they put on a sort of numbing cream on the intended injection sites 45 min before they did the test. Don't know if it was EMLA or whatever as I didn't think to look but I'm sure it was something similar.

Anyway after leaving it on the full time they did the first test (and lost the vein..) poor DS cried and cried every time. I am sure that freaking cream didn't do a thing. The 4th time I said this is NOT happening and wouldn't let him do it again as it was distressing him so much so the guy got someone else who managed it first time.

If it hurt that much for just a needle stick I can't imagine how much actually cutting off a part of the body would hurt with that stuff to even call it pain relief is a joke. And, get this, the nurse said "He's only crying because he's being held down." Yeah, BS, because he was FINE with being held down until the second they stuck the needle in. :

[Ophelia]

we had some allergy blood tests done recently (including for celiac although I think it was the wrong type of test as we were not ingesting gluten) and it was tough seeing the needle hurt DS so I can understand that. His veins collapsed and we had to go back again another day to get it done again.

You're right, it doesn't sound like the cream worked and I do not trust it to work for circ either. I also don't think the 'sugar pacifiers' work either, they may be more just of a distraction than anything (and why is it OK to give a newborn baby straight sugar when they should only be getting mother's milk, or if that is not possible, formula??).

[Pumpkinheadmommy]

Poor little guy. I hope he's doing ok. I had something very similar happen to my LO last week too. He got a nasty splinter in his heel and he wouldn't let us get it out (he's 3) and it started getting infected. I have a neighbor who is a ped that recommended we get a prescription for EMLA, put it on for 45 minutes, then get it out. I decided to let our ped do it so I made an appt and told them we wanted EMLA, but when I got there the doctor said "we don't have that here." She had "freezing spray" instead and it didn't do a thing for him. I had to help hold him down while he screamed "mommy, make it stop! please!" He finally just put his head down and cried. I cried too (I'm crying now just thinking about it) and I felt terrible about it! I should have just walked out when she said she didn't have EMLA, but I held onto hope that the spray would work. I guess I feel a little better now (although I'm not sure why) that I know the EMLA doesn't work either.

But it reminded me of circ too. I've seen parents say the doctor used freezing spray but now I know that it doesn't help. And now I know the EMLA doesn't help either, so I wonder how much, if any, pain relief these poor babies are getting. I guess, for myself, I have the consolation of knowing this splinter had to be removed. There's no way in heck I would allow my child to go through this kind of pain if he didn't have to.

[Claire and Boys]

They mentioned the freezing spray to us as well but said it isn't as effective as the cream they used He's fine, but he was pretty traumatised by it. I had do have the same testing done as I have some sort of wheat intolerance too and he wanted to come in with me, the second he saw the man with the gloves he ran off screaming and crying. Poor little dude.

I agree with you pumpkinheadmommy, I don't understand how any parent would want to have their child go through any kind of pain when it isn't necessary.