Any person is faced with blood tests from birth, so mothers should know when blood tests are recommended for children and why they are performed.
Planned in a baby
Blood tests are included in the routine medical examination of babies under one year old in order to identify possible deviations and begin to treat them at an early stage.
For the first time, a healthy baby is prescribed such a study at 3 months of age. It will help eliminate anemia and determine if the baby is ready for routine vaccination.
Further, a blood test will need to be taken at 12 months during a comprehensive extensive examination, including examination by specialists and other tests.
Unscheduled
A blood test can be prescribed for various diseases and complaints from the child. It is worth examining the blood with a protracted course of diseases, which usually pass without complications and rather quickly. Also, the examination helps to assess the severity of the disease and the effectiveness of the prescribed treatment.
Training
Traditionally, it is recommended to take a blood test in the morning and not have breakfast. But with young children, this can be challenging. If the child is very hungry (especially if it is a baby), you should not leave him without breakfast. Taking an empty stomach test is more of a recommendation than a strict rule. In addition, hunger for a nursing baby can be quite stressful, which can change blood counts more than morning feeding. But still, if you fed the child, go with him to the clinic in 1-2 hours.
Pay attention to the psychological preparation of the crumbs for the analysis, if the child is more than a year old. Tell the baby what will happen in the office so that the injection does not come as a surprise to him and does not undermine his trust in you.
Where can I get tested?
Blood is taken from babies in children's clinics in treatment rooms that work in the morning. At any time of the day, the test can be taken in the hospital, if there is evidence for this. Also, the condition of the blood can be determined in medical centers and private laboratories.
Blood tests are primarily distinguished by indications. The most common is the general (clinical) analysis. Even healthy babies can do it. The decoding of the general blood test of the child was considered by us in another article.
What results are considered bad?
During a general blood test, the mother and the doctor should be alerted by changes in the level of hemoglobin and the number of erythrocytes, since a decrease in these indicators is characteristic of anemia. By the number of leukocytes and their ratio, you can diagnose an infection in a child, and also determine whether it is viral or bacterial.
An increase in such an indicator as ESR suggests that there is an inflammatory process in the body of the crumbs.
