A Palmerston North mother whose baby daughter found a hypodermic needle on their front lawn and put it in her mouth faces a three-month wait before the baby can be tested for HIV and hepatitis.
Claire Lucas said the incident, nearly three weeks ago, was the worst day of her life.
"Thewaiting at the moment I'm not keen on ... It's nerve-racking," the 23-year-old said.
She said she took 9-month-old Jessica with her to check the mailbox outside their Hokowhitu home. She put her baby down on the grass to play while she retrieved the mail.
But the next thing she knew, her daughter had something in her mouth - and when she pulled it out, she discovered it was a rusty intravenous needle.
When she took Jessica to the doctor to be checked, the baby wriggled too much for the doctor to be able to check her mouth to see if she had been pricked with the needle.
The needle Jessica found was not covered and there was no syringe with it.
A blood test showed Jessica had good immunity to hepatitis B. It was a two-day wait for that result and now Mrs Lucas has to wait three months for the HIV and other hepatitis tests to be done, because the infections cannot be detected earlier.
But Mrs Lucas was told that it was extremely unlikely Jessica would get HIV or hepatitis C.
Like most infants, Jessica "sticks everything in her mouth", Mrs Lucas said.
A spokesman for Palmerston North's needle exchange programme, the Drug and Health Development Project, said in a lot of incidents in the past where needles had been found, they were diabetic insulin or veterinary needles.
