Preparing for an MRI at Children’s Hospital Central California Created by Child Life Services

Entrance Please enter through the imaging entrance and stop at the security desk. The officer will give you a wristband, map and directions.

Register at the Kiosk When you arrive in our registration area, look for the little blue feet on the floor and follow them to the kiosk.

Sign in You will sign in at the kiosk to have your MRI picture taken. Your doctor needs the picture to see the inside of your body. During the MRI nothing will touch or hurt you.

Registration Before your MRI, the adult family member who brought you will take care of some paperwork at the registration desk.

Waiting Room While you are waiting you may draw, color or play with a toy you brought with you.

Locker Room After a little while, you will hear your first name called. You will be taken to a locker room and given some hospital clothes to change into. An adult can hold on to your things or they can be placed in a locker.

M is for Magnetic The “M” in MRI is for magnetic, and just like a magnet sticks to your refrigerator, if you wear metal it will “stick” to the MRI machine and will interfere with the picture. You’ll need to take off glitter nail polish, too.

MRI You will lie flat on a table that moves slowly into the tunnel. We might use a Velcro seatbelt across your body because we want you to feel safe when the table moves. When the MRI picture is being taken you will need to stay still as a statue, or freeze like in freeze tag.

If you’re getting a picture of your head, there will be a helmet and some padding around your head to help you stay still. Sometimes kids like to keep their eyes closed so they don’t move their eyes around and mess up the picture. If you move, you will make the picture blurry and we will have to take it again.

Noise You will wear earplugs because the sound of the MRI is noisy. Sometimes ear pads will go over the ear plugs, so you can listen to music.

Noise Other times, head phones will go on top of the ear plugs. The headphones are for listening to your favorite music too.

MRIs are Noisy The MRI sounds like a robot. It also has a hammer noise that can sound like a construction site. The sounds mean the MRI is working really well, and when you hear the noise it’s important to stay still. Click to listen A Click to listen B

MRI technologist is always there The technologist will be in the control room and will talk to you through a microphone. You can talk to the technologist, too. If you start to get worried or need a break, there’s something you can squeeze to tell the tech.

Thank you for coming to your appointment When you are ready to leave, you will get your things out of the locker and return the hospital clothes.