A child’s hospital stay can affect many areas of your family’s daily life. No matter how old your child is, remember these helpful hints:

• Choose a quiet time to talk about the upcoming surgery and/or hospitalization.
• Use a calm and relaxing voice.
• Reassure your child that you feel that the hospitalization, procedure or test is the right thing to do.
• Ask your child what he/she knows or thinks about the hospital.
• Try to choose words that are neutral when describing procedures or tests. For example, you may want to tell your child that the doctor will give him/her a “special sleep medicine” if the child is going to have anesthesia.
• Try not to make promises you can’t keep. For example, don’t tell your child that nothing will hurt or that there won’t be any blood tests.
• Tell your child that friends and family will be able to visit & parents will be always there.
• Encourage your child to ask you, doctors and nurses lots of questions.
• Pay close attention to your child’s feelings and help him/her talk about them. You can help your child to express the feelings through drawing, painting or “playing doctor” with stuffed animals at home.