Glove balloon design useful for distraction of children in ER

(HealthDay)—An inflated hospital glove is a useful distraction for children with acute injury, with more children preferring the face drawn "Jedward" style, with the digits representing hair made to look like the distinctive hairdo of Irish pop duo Jedward, according to a short report published online April 29 in the Emergency Medicine Journal.

Eoin Fogarty, M.D., M.H.S., from Tallaght Hospital in Dublin, and colleagues examined the best way to orientate a standard hospital glove, inflated as a balloon with a face drawn on it, for use as a distraction technique for children with acute injury. One hundred forty-nine pediatric patients between the ages of 2 and 8 years were given the option of playing with one of two glove balloons, with a face drawn either in "Jedward" style (where the five digits resemble the hair) or in "Mohawk" style (where the thumb represents the nose and the remaining four digits resemble the hair).

The researchers found that, of the 136 children who chose a glove, 75 (55 percent) selected the "Jedward" version and 61 chose the "Mohawk" version (P = 0.18).

"A standard hospital glove, inflated as a balloon with a face drawn on it, is a useful distraction for children with an acute injury," the authors write. "The face should be drawn 'Jedward' style."

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