Bribery works...

Now that Tikvah is 4, the doctor wanted to do a blood screening, and since our home was built before 1978, that includes a check for lead. She was annoyed enough at the shots she got, I knew the blood draw wasn't going to be any fun. First off, there was no way Laya would do this. She has trypanophobia, an extreme and irrational fear of medical procedures involving injections or hypodermic needles. So if she were with Tikvah, she'd freak out, which wouldn't help Tikvah any. So I took her. Before we left home, I snuck something into my shirt pocket. I gave Tikvah a brief explaination of what was going to happen, but didn't go into a lot of detail that would only scare her more. I filled out the paperwork and when the time came, we went into the lab. Tikvah started to get nervous and paced the room a little bit. But then she saw the Cinderella stickers. "Oh, Cinderella!" The phlebotomist gave her a couple of stickers to help calm her down. She sat on my lap, and started to whimper a little bit. I kept reassuring her, and directed her to look somewhere else, not at her arm.

Of course, the moment the needle went in, she cried and cried. They didn't take a lot of blood, but it took about 15-20 seconds to get what they needed. As soon as she finished, the phlebotomist put a band-aid on Tikvah and said she was all set. But Tikvah kept on crying. I then reached into my shirt pocket and pulled out a strawberry lollipop. "Do you want a lollipop?" As soon as she saw it, she said "yes" and stopped crying immediately. Not even a whimper afterwards! The change was so sudden, the phlebotomist laughed. So I guess a little bribery is okay... :-)