So far my son has had 6 blood draws with TEDDY. I now think I must have the easiest TEDDY baby/toddler when it comes to blood draws. At 3 months he just laughed and cooed at me, 6 months through a year he just looked at bubbles or the staff member and smiled, 15 and 18 months he did look at the bubbles more but was also interested in what they were doing with his arm and watched the blood come out.
Now I know this won’t always be the case and at some point he’ll forget how easy it’s been and get scared or maybe he’ll just be having a bad day. Writing this I feel like I’m jinxing the next visit (sorry in advance to my son and co-worker we usually see). Like every mom I hate to see my child in pain or scared. Of course that’s already happened, I can’t prevent pain or fear in his life, but it hasn’t been a problem yet in his TEDDY visits.
I feel that participating in TEDDY will be a great learning experience for him when he’s older both in altruism (doing something for the greater good) and that we all have to do things we may think are unpleasant (like the dentist). Most people aren’t as lucky as me and have their first blood draw experience at the age of 23. I’d take a TEDDY visit any day over the 6 shots at his 12 month Dr visit that was truly horrible! I hope my son will grow to love his TEDDY visits with the wonderful staff, great prizes, fun gifts and our customary after visit outing to the zoo.
