My pediatrician told me that they only draw blood every five years for children. That seems like a really long time in between bloodwork and I'm paranoid that a hidden illness will get missed! How often does your pediatrician draw blood as part of your child's physical? What other things do your pediatrician do every year? Thanks!
The only time my kids ever had a blood draw was when they where sick and the dr needed to rule specific things out.
Mine never had blood drawn, except when he was in the trials for the varicella vaccine (part of the trials, to test for antibodies, not because he had a medical indication) and then during his senior year in high school when he had symptoms of severe mono. He fell out of a tree from pretty high up and was taken by ambulance to the ER, and it's possible that they drew some blood then in case they needed to do any sort of procedure, but I can't swear to it.
Absent symptoms to indicate what test should be given, I shudder to think how much blood they would have to draw to test for everything in the world, even if there's no indication of any disease. 40 possible diseases could mean 20-30 vials of blood! That's unnecessary expense, unnecessary invasiveness and unnecessary trauma for the child. And what about all the diseases that don't show up on blood tests? You can't do random x-rays and random MRIs and so forth just in case when you don't even know what you're looking for.
If you have a strong family history of something, you can discuss that disease with your doctor.
My kids are 8 and 13 and they have never had their blood drawn. That is not normally done. I would only want that done if one of my kids were ill and the doctor was trying to test them to figure out what is wrong. They just get physicals done and their vaccinations at the doctor. We have been in for strep throat, a skin rash, and a broken arm...so I guess we have been lucky. My nephew was having many issues with pain and they didn't know why - he had to get blood drawn - it ended up he was diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.
My kids had their blood drawn at 12 months for CBC and for lead levels, but nothing since then.
My boys have never had blood drawn, and they are 8 & 11.
I see my doctor for an annual physical, and he orders blood tests every year to check my cholesterol and sugar levels. That's really because I'm overweight and at risk.
I don't think doctors routinely do blood tests unless there is an indicator that something needs to be tested.
My kids (all young adults now) have NEVER had "routine" blood work, other than the finger pricks at the well check ups when they were little.
If they do a physical, an actual physical for school or anything, they always draw blood. But truthfully they get blood drawn more. Each time they're sick they almost always have blood drawn for tests. So it's not like your child won't see the doc for 5 full years, right?
If you don't like what this doc said you can always change to another pediatrician. If they're older then you might find that a regular doc will work well for them too. They can go to a pediatrician but don't have to. There are general family practitioners all over.
Updated
If they do a physical, an actual physical for school or anything, they always draw blood. But truthfully they get blood drawn more. Each time they're sick they almost always have blood drawn for tests. So it's not like your child won't see the doc for 5 full years, right?
If you don't like what this doc said you can always change to another pediatrician. If they're older then you might find that a regular doc will work well for them too. They can go to a pediatrician but don't have to. There are general family practitioners all over.
My son gets his finger pricked at his yearly physicals. They take a small amount of blood. They check protein levels and a few other things.
When my kids were little, they had more often since checking lead levels etc. But now, maybe every 3 to 5 yrs. My boys get blood draws every 6 months but that is due to having hemophilia. Unless the kids are exposed to harmful things, then there really is no need to check all the time.
my children are 5 and 7. . the 7 yr old had a slightly elevated lead level when they were under age 2 and had 2 blood draws to make sure it went back down after we eliminated the source of lead. other than that no bloodwork
the 5 yr old had surgery at 11 months so had bloodwork associated with that and one other time after failing to respond to antibiotics. other than that none for routine physicals and no talk of it ever happening
My boys are 22 and 23 and I don't recall blood draws except maybe a few times when one was really sick and they tested for something specific. They did do blood draws for allergy testing. There was never any routine blood draws.
Not since infancy-preschool ages when they monitor for specific things. Blood draws are not generally part of a routine checkup for healthy school age kids. They do them when a problem is suspected, or if you go in because your kid is sick and needs testing for diagnosis.
Never. I have very healthy kids
My kids are 8 and 10. They have never had blood draws except for the routine heel prick
as newborns. Our doc does well child checks every other year (when immunizations are due). It usually involves listening to heart and lungs, taking blood pressure, feeling the abdominal area, and other very basic things.
I certainly can't refer to my daughter, as her blood work is extremely frequent.
However, we also have a son, who has no health issues. There are no genetic or familial blood-borne diseases or inheritable diseases. So my son had blood drawn perhaps once in one of his first well-baby checkups, but not again after that.
I think that unless your family has a history of a particular disease that can get passed down, or if you have a strong family history of something like leukemia in multiple generations, or unless your child never seems well, I wouldn't expect a blood test routinely.
