Help your child

My child need to go to hospital

Knowing that your own child has to go to a hospital is overwhelming. Each parent would like to take his place so as to avoid his pain.

When talking about hospital, memories, images, smells of our own experience and/or the experience of a close person in a clinic get back to us. Good, bad and painful moments also come to our mind. Nevertheless, hospitals have evolved and what one lived once may no longer be the case today.

How to help our child to go through hospitalisation?

You are the person who knows him better. You feel what is best for him, you are his best adviser and the best person to help him.

However, do not hesitate to contact your family when your batteries needed to be recharged. Ask help to your relatives: grammas and grandpas, aunts, uncles, godparents. Your child will feel ever more looked after. Even if a close person can help you for 5 minutes, you can have a break.  

•    Talk to your child about his hospitalisation with terms he can understand,

•    The child will find support in bringing a toy, a teddy bear and/or a familiar object to the hospital,

•    Each hospitalisation comprises painful moments for the child (blood tests, medical examinations, etc) and he needs you to be there with him,

•    In case you cannot be with him, give him the reason of your absence and tell him in advance,

•    One of your roles is to explain to your child that doctors and nurses are in the hospital to help him get healthy again,

•    During hospitalisation and recovery, the child can have an unusual behaviour (restless sleep, anger attitudes, a need to cling to the parents, regression). Those reactions are common! Do not scold him for acting this way. Encourage him to explain his feelings (possibly through a play or a drawing).