About heel prick screening

We offer the heel prick screen to all newborn babies. This is usually when they are between 3 and 5 days old.

A midwife or public health nurse (PHN) takes the bloodspot sample for the screen. This can take place in hospital or at your home.

They take a small sample of blood from your baby's heel. This is why we call it a heel prick.

Taking blood from the heel is a safe way to do the procedure without causing discomfort or harm to your baby.

Conditions your baby is checked for

Laboratory staff then check your baby’s blood for 11 rare but serious conditions:

The heel prick is free and 99.9% of parents in Ireland agree to have their babies screened.

Most babies born in Ireland will not have any of the 11 conditions that the heel prick checks for.

Why we screen at 3 to 5 days

We need to wait until your baby has been feeding for a few days before we can screen them. Otherwise the results may not be accurate.

Some of the conditions can make your baby sick very fast. So it is best to get them screened before your baby is over 5 days old.

Benefits of heel prick screening

These 11 conditions are very rare. But for any baby that has any of these conditions the benefits of screening are very significant.

Screening for these conditions and catching them early means your baby can start treatment as soon as possible.

Treatment can:

improve their health
help prevent severe disability or death from the condition

Most of the conditions we screen for show no obvious signs and symptoms immediately after birth. Often there is no family history.

Screening helps find these conditions before your baby has any symptoms.

Without screening these conditions may not be obvious until later on.

Limitations of heel prick screening

The main limitations of heel prick screening are that it will not:

detect all cases of all conditions screened for
make a diagnosis

Like all screening, heel prick screening is not perfect. It does not make a diagnosis. It can only suggest that a baby is at risk of having 1 or more of the conditions screened for.

A doctor or nurse will contact you if the heel prick suggests that your baby is at risk of having any of the 11 conditions we screen for. They will refer your baby for further tests.

Screening is not perfect

No screening test is perfect. They all have limitations.

It can be helpful to imagine screening like putting people through a sieve. Most people pass through it. This means they are at low risk of having the condition screened for. They get a normal (not suspected) screening result.

The small number of people left in the sieve are at a higher risk of having the condition screened for. They are the positive results. They will need further tests to see if they have the condition. In some cases, some of these people will be told their result was a 'false positive' result.

In very rare cases, people can ‘slip through the sieve’. This means actual cases are not picked up by the screening test. These are known as ‘false negatives’.