ds’s anxiety about physical tomorrow | Autism PDD
Luckily my son doesn't have much anxiety about anything, so I haven't had to deal with this myself. If a blood draw causes anxiety, a topical anesthetic can be used before insert the needle. The one my son used took half an hour (maybe more) to take effect, so we got it at the drug store in advance and applied it before the appointment. It didn't help so much though since he was only 6 and panicked at the sight of the needle despite our telling him it wouldn't hurt. And of course when he squirms, it does hurt.
Anyhow, here's an article from the NAS in the UK:
http://www.nas.org.uk/nas/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=1064&a=1144 0
Here's a brochure for your doctor, that can help make appointments go smoothly. It's called "Your Next Patient Has Autism":
http://www.nslij.com/workfiles/autism/YourNextPatient.pdf
And here are two social stories that could be used:
http://www.slatersoftware.com/Doctor%20Social%20Story.pdf - with PECS
http://www.jambav.com/modules/makale/makale.php?id=6 - To access them, go to this webpage and click on "Ready for our stories?" at the bottom of the page.
You should then see an image of 3 bookshelves. Click on the title you want, and its image will show up on the bottom shelf. Click on that image to start the story.
You can get back to the bookshelves at any time by clicking on the menu tab, and then choosing "Select."
If you haven't had the appointment yet, good luck with it.
Quinn has an appointment tomorrow morning for his yearly physical. Since I told him the appt. today he has been extremely anxious about it, so much that I wish I'd waited until tomorrow morning to tell him.
when I told him he said "why did they have to pick tomorrow, I just want to be with you tomorrow mom"...Springing things on him usually usually causes more irritability and anxiety but in this case I am starting to wish I had waited. He keeps asking what is going to be done. I told him the usual weigh you, measure how tall you are to see how much you have grown since last time, take your temperature and blood pressure and ask questions about how you are doing. He asked if they will take blood
....I don't want to lie but I'm pretty sure that they will so I told him I'm not sure. He says he does not want that done. I've tried reasuring him that everything will be ok and that his firends have this done....I have to have it done soon too. I was able to get his mind off it for a bit and get him laughing when I told him that he can tell the doc that he is as tall as my 32 yr old cousin and that right after his appt. we can go to Chuck E. Cheese.
Sorry such a long post..I was just wondering how some of you handle your kid's anxiety over appts.
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