Lead Test Results!

My daughter is 19 months and unfortunately has to have her labs drawn quite a bit. She is hypothyroid and on medication that requires labs (for quite some time every five weeks.) Anyway, what I do is when she is laying down, I kind of lay my body over her where my face is really close to hers and sing her favorite songs. If she is sitting in my lap, I sing right into her ears.

Interesting about the lead. Keep us posted on the results and what they say about them.

The nurse who drew my daughter's blood talked me threw what she was going to do and what she wanted me to do. A good nurse/doc will tell you what to expect/do if they do not ASK them. My daughter sat on my lap (both of us facing the nurse), then I hugged my daughter and the nurse held on to the arm/hand she was drawing blood from. My daughter cried a little but I quickly gave her favorite stuff animal/blanket, got a sippy cup and done.

Testing for lead is normal, and double checking the levels later on is important to make sure it is not always high. High levels all the time can do damage, hence why they test for it at an young a age, but is most damaging if the levels stay high for an extended amount of time (yrs).

Do you live in a house that was built before 1971? They used lead paint before it became illegal, however over time it would flake off (both inside and out) and kids would eat it when it get's on their hands and toys. Have your house tested! We were thinking of buying an older home and had it tested it was 400x above the safe limit in the backyard and 150x higher in the front yard! It is an expensive thing to have fixed. However, it can cause nervous system damage in children before they are two. Kids don't have a blood brain barrier in place until after two years of age. Lead will attach itself to the nervous system and cause learning disabilities and other problems. Older kids are safer. I would rather have blood taken than worry about this. I have 4 kids and all of them at one point or another had blood taken at a young age, no big deal. The people know how to do it. This is scary but it can be taken care of, so follow through. Good Luck!

You really need to research lead poisoning and prevention. This is very serious and can cause permanent damage. I thought I even read somewhere that any result over a 10 required hospitalization.

Young kids crawl around and pick things up off the floor and put them in their mouths, thus exposing themselves to lead dust much more so than adults. In you live in an old house, painting all the surfaces that have old paint will seal in the old lead paint, and is the easiest way to contain it.

Opening and closing old painted windows often can cause the paint to be ground into dust which is then inhaled, so if there is old paint on the windows leave them closed. And clean as much as you can, wiping up paint dust with a wet paper towel and throwing it away, since mopping just spreads it around. After you've wiped down everything, mop frquently.

You can look all this up online, but please take action soon for your daughter's safety, even consider moving to a newer or better maintained house. I've been through this, though at a lower level, and it was scary and overwhelming. Good luck!

My middle son's lead level was determined to be high when he was a baby (interesting how the other two were normal). His dr put him on (really nasty dark brown liquid) iron supplements. At his recheck 3 months later it was below the safe number. He has never had any developmental or academic issues. He was a very preemie, my only explanation is he had preemie formula to supplement the breast milk.........he also was on many many medications when newborn. When having the blood drawn for the first time, bring a favorite comfort toy, take her somewhere special afterward, bring lollypops, some little ones react very badly to it, some barely flinch, a good lab tech or nurse will know how to distract her and help you both through it. My preemie was 1lb 11oz when born, so no, they are never to small to put a needle in! I've read high lead levels have been linked to behavior problems, learning disabilities, and a slew of other issues. Google it to find more, Good Luck!

Your fist concern can be helped by a few things. A little book about what doctors and nurses do. A little doctor kit for her to go around taking temperatures, listening to heart beats, and getting fake shots. Also, have a reward handy for her being a brave girl and get her to not look at the needle going in.

Your second concern is the really big one. Do lots of research, ask lots of questions of the doctor, ask how you can get more information, what you should do, how to follow up and see if she can get rid of the lead in her system, etc. etc.

In the meantime, I presume you are trying to figure out the source of the lead: from paint on the house to old cribs and old toys, etc. Find out if you can get someone to find the source if it isn't obvious. Then, get the heck away from teh source.

I'm guessing they didn't do a blood draw the 1st time it was a finger prick?It is really easy to draw blood I have always held my children on my lap the tech draws and if needed another tech holding the arm that needs to be drawn down in place to avoid accidental movement resulting in injury or missing the area of the draw site.I have 3 kiddos and all have been tested for lead all normal under 3 it is high to have 15 out of the normal range if it is high enough I mean really high they will admit her and give her an IV that she can pee out the lead..Lead poising is harmful it can cause ireversible damage to the brain or death if not caught and treated.Don't worry to much till the resluts are final most likely they will give you a diet plan to follow such as fruit and veggies high in vitamin c,milk for calcium and others if you search for EPA I believe or type in lead in the search bar it'll give you plenty of sites to do research and diet changes.
I just want to add don't let your child buy or play with the gumball type jewerly or things bought in those machines they are made from lead and recalled all the time fake play jewerly bought at stores as well if your unsure it's safe limit her wear on them and avoid having them in her mouth since this is the way toddlers learn is through touch and mouthing everything just don't give them to her.I know there are thousands of things on the market today that contain lead but things aren't tested like they should be even with all teh recalls that go on from major toy companies to play jewerly.All you can do is educate yourself and follow what the dr wants you to do.

I am wondering why you had to have your child tested for lead? Was your child having any problems, symptoms?