Your child will almost certainly have one done at each hospital appointment. My son's are done from a finger-prick, but a larger blob of blood required, into this tiny pencil shaped tube thingy. The pointed end sucks the blood up, and the hospital have ours tested whilst we are there and we get the results within minutes. Our GP asks for them from time to time too, but they then get taken from a vein. It is as explained above, and gives a kind of average of the control over the past 3 months or so. We were told ideally below 7.5%, though preferably in the 6's. Much lower and it would suggest you are having too many hypos we were told, so 6's are pretty perfect I believe. (Other people probably told otherwise!!)