(Bobbi Corbin)

My experiences in screening children for lead in their blood have certainly been all good experiences!  I have been involved in screening and testing for a couple years now and parents of all children whether middle class, or low income,  all have the same feelings about the health of their children – they want only the best!  We try to make our dates, times and places that we hold the screenings convenient for families and our health plans help with incentives to get Medicaid kids to the screenings. It is wonderful to see moms making sure their kids are safe by bringing them to have a simple finger stick done.  It’s fun to meet the families and look into those sweet little faces knowing that if they have lead in their blood we can report that to the families and give them resources they need to help these little people improve.  All children should have the chances to be the best they can. We know and understand what lead in blood does to small children and how to help them if there is lead. This one small test gives us the opportunity to find out and let the parents know. It also provides us with the opportunity to advise parents about areas of the home that could be exposing their kids to lead and show them ways to improve their kids living environment so they can live and play in a safely. Knowing this makes my days doing these screenings very important to me.