Helping Siblings Cope with a Hospital Stay
When a child goes to the hospital, the experience can be as frightening for a brother or sister as it is for the child who is ill. Changes in family routines, separation from parents, and concern about their sick sibling can shake their sense of security.
Many of the same techniques you use to prepare your ill child for hospitalization can also be used to help your other children:
- Give your children as much honest information about their sibling's health as they can understand.
- Provide opportunities for them to ask questions and express feelings.
- Preparing and helping in the planning can be as important for a healthy child as for the hospitalized child. Allow the sibling to:
- Take the hospital tour with the sick child, if possible
- Act out experiences with people, dolls, or puppets
- Set aside some private time each day just for them.
- Make it a point to recognize important events in their lives.
- When you have to be away from home with the hospitalized child:
- Arrange to have someone both you and they trust stay with them.
- Check in by phone as often as you can. Call at bedtime to read a bedtime story.
- Send letters or tapes.
- Nurture ongoing involvement between siblings and the hospitalized child throughout the hospital experience:
- Have siblings draw pictures or make cards to send to the hospital.
- Set up times for siblings to call the child in the hospital.
- When possible, give siblings the choice of visiting a brother or sister in the hospital. If they choose to visit, be sure to prepare them for what they will see, hear and feel.
- Inform school guidance counselors about what's happening.
- Allow siblings to keep a balance between increased responsibility at home and maintaining their normal activities.
- Talk to your Child Life Specialist for other ideas or ways they can help.
Have Questions?
If you have questions about your child's condition or would like information about a test or treatment the Ask A Medical Librarian (AAML) service offered by the Edward G. Miner Library at the University of Rochester Medical Center will provide it for you.
