After a Nuclear Medicine Study: How to Care for Your Child
Nuclear medicine studies are a safe way to produce images of internal organs to learn what parts of the body look like and how they are working.
Your child received a very small amount of radioactive material through a tiny plastic catheter placed in a vein. Then pictures were taken to get more information about certain body functions. Sometimes health care providers give children medicine to help them stay calm so they don't move around while the pictures are being taken.
While your child had some radiation exposure from the study, it was a very small amount. The radioactive material becomes less and less radioactive over a short period of time, and passes painlessly out of your child's body through urination and bowel movements.
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Encourage your child to drink plenty of fluids and urinate often for the first 1–2 days to help flush out any remaining radioactive material.
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Allow your child to rest as needed if a sedating medication was given.
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When your child feels up to it, resume regular diet and activity.
Your child:
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Was sedated and develops nausea or abdominal pain.
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Develops redness, swelling, or tenderness at the catheter insertion area.
Your child develops signs of an allergic reaction to the radioactive material, such as: