How to collect heel blood from babies

Generally speaking, when examining newborn babies clinically, the heel blood test is included. This test is also a measure taken to help babies avoid some common diseases. Therefore, how to collect heel blood from babies has become something that most parents want to know. So, how should the heel blood of babies be collected?

Newborn heel prick screening is a test performed by collecting blood from the heel of a baby 72 hours after birth. It is mainly aimed at diseases with high incidence, no obvious symptoms in the early stages but with positive laboratory indicators, which can be diagnosed and treated. Currently, the items included in the screening scope in our country include congenital hypothyroidism and phenylketonuria.

Heel blood sampling should be done within 3 to 7 days after birth and the newborn should be fully breastfed. For those who do not have blood drawn for various reasons (premature babies, low birth weight babies, those discharged early, etc.), the blood should be drawn no later than 20 days after birth. Newborn disease screening is done by collecting heel blood from the newborn at the delivery hospital (the blood is dropped onto a special paper and the blood spot is then sent to the Newborn Disease Screening Center for testing).

1. Hold the sole of your foot with your left hand;

2. When drawing blood, squeeze the sole of the foot with your left hand, and at the same time, hold the calf on the same side with your right hand, using moderate force and relaxing intermittently;

3. Use the index and middle fingers of your left hand to clamp the calf from the popliteal fossa along the small saphenous vein and push down to the ankle joint to clamp it, collect blood, and prevent blood reflux;

4. Warm your feet and let the blood flow out naturally without squeezing;

5. After taking a bath, use a warm towel to apply heat to the blood collection point;

6. In addition to routine blood collection, blood should be collected from newborns after regular breastfeeding, bathing, and alcohol heel massage.

The above is an analysis of how to collect heel blood from infants. For parents, in order to prevent infants from suffering from some high-incidence diseases, collecting heel blood from infants is a very necessary thing. The method and requirements for collecting heel blood from infants have also been described in detail in the article for your reference.