Another tool that can make it easier on the tiny babies and small children in the hospital is what’s called a transilluminator. Although it looks like something a handyman might use to fix a leak, it's actually helping kids avoid extra pokes.

For patients like 3-year-old Bradlee, it's often hard to find a good vein to start an IV because of sunken-in veins or chunky hands that hide them. But when the battery-operated transilluminator is placed under the hand, it makes the vein light up and doesn't hurt the child at all.

“When we don't use it, we're just going blind and so it can mean sticking once, twice, three, four, five, six times for an IV start instead of making your chances a lot higher. Now, it’s not 100 percent with this either, you don't always get every vein but it makes it so much easier when you can see the vein that you're going for,” Dr. Didi Mon-Sprehe of Sanford Pediatric ICU said.

The transilluminator is also used in the neonatal intensive care unit to find holes in the lungs of premature babies.