Kicking myself

[HerthElde]

I still haven't phoned public health to let them know Anja exists and go get the PKU - which we've definitely decided to do. She's 4 weeks old yesterday. She's starting to have a definite response to pain, and although part of me thinks she would have felt it at a couple days anyway, I feel sooooo bad knowing how much it might affect her now I'm phoning Tuesday (dh is away until tomorrow night, so I have no way to get her in tomorrow anyway) and want to take her right away. But I feel bad. I worry that she's less likely to nurse through it now and it might be more traumatic. Anyone heard of that emla cream? Would it work for this? Would it be a bad idea? Anything else I could try?

I just wanted to make sure her bellybutton stopped oozing blood first - it's healed now, so I'm not so worried. Ugh.

[PuppyFluffer]

Take a washcloth with you. Warm it with hot water and wrap the baby's foot in it.
The heat causes the blood vessels to expand and bring more blood flow into the area, thus minimizing the amount of squeezing they need to do to get the blood and possibly avoiding a second stick to get enough blood.

Of course make sure it's not too hot!

[PerkyKP]

Originally Posted by PuppyFluffer

Take a washcloth with you. Warm it with hot water and wrap the baby's foot in it.

The hospital did this all the times DD got pricked. In the nursery they had hot packs that you squeeze to activate, and in the lab they filled a glove with hot water, and held it to her foot for a few minutes. She still cried, but not for more than 20 seconds or so. Hope it goes well for you!

[SumnerRain]

We learned the hard way that Sophie is a clotter, the midwife would rub the sore with the washcloth to get it to bleed some more, but she still ended up being a VERY difficult baby to get blood from. My midwife felt so bad, she had never had a baby that was so difficult to get to bleed & stay bleeding.

I kept reminding myself that as horrible as it was for DD, the midwife & I, that would never forgive myself if I declined the test to find out she had something that would have shown up on the screening.

[theatermom]

I'm going to bet that she'll still nurse through it. In fact, we had to do a blood draw for PKU at 2 weeks because the CNM couldn't get enough blood at our home visit. Q broke off the breast for a split second when the lab tech pricked him, but then immediately went back to it.

[ZoeyZoo]

I don't know what conditions your state tests but many of the metabolic diseases including PKU can be done through a urine sample. If you are good at EC this may be an option. It won't test the genetic diseases though...