why the kids don't love me

Thursday I was back in the community at the school finishing assessments with the kids at one of the schools. I was on finger stick/hemoglobin duty. I became very creative with ways to distract the children from the pain or get them to extend their little fingers for a second. As a bribe we offer a garfield band-aid and a piece of taffy! We even let them pick which color. Despite all this, getting a finger stick still isn't the kids' favorite activity. 

Most were super brave and cute. It's so funny when they aren't scared at all until they see the blood coming out. By then the pain is over but they end up crying more!  I have realized there is a direct relationship between the quantity of blood the child sees and how loud they scream. This isn't exactly my favorite job because the cute kiddos get so sad but I'm glad these kids are at least getting screened. So many have anemia and need more iron in their diets. We're trying to educate the parents with nutrition classes each day and help Hogar de Cristo to start producing soy milk. Until then though, I'll keep upsetting the children with finger sticks...

This little girl can hardly contain her excitement as she awaits a hemoglobin check :)

She wasn't a big fan! 

I'll try to catch up on the blog tomorrow! Thanks for reading guys :)