A hospital admission is a major event for a child. You often only notice how drastic it is after you have been discharged from the hospital. Your child may then behave differently at home than you are used to. Sometimes this does not happen immediately after hospital admission, but some time later. And sometimes not at all.
Hospitalization
- Safety and trust
- Different behavior after hospital admission
- Tips for hospital admission
- Finally
Safety and trust
For a child, the hospital can be a world of ambiguities and uncertainties. Things may have happened during the recording that your child did not understand. Your child must process these events. It is therefore important that your child feels safe in the period after hospital admission. That safe feeling is sometimes difficult to give; on the one hand, your child will be happy to be home again, on the other hand, he or she may not completely trust the situation. Your child may have a hard time with these conflicting feelings. During this period it is good to give your child extra attention.
Different behavior after hospital admission
After a hospital admission, your child may temporarily:
- have a fear of being left alone by you
- require much more attention than usual
- have problems sleeping
- have problems with eating
- being angry or showing aggressive behavior
- having fits of crying
- to be introverted
- don’t want to go to school
Relapses in development such as:
- bedwetting while already toilet trained
- crawling when it could already walk
- fingers crossed
- speaking worse than usual
It can help if you know that this behavior is not directed at you, but that your child is taking out emotions in this way. If your child regains the confidence that something bad cannot happen at any moment, in many cases these behavioral changes will disappear after a short time.
Tips for hospital admission
- Give your child the extra attention he or she needs. Don’t be afraid to spoil your child
- Make sure that you or someone you know is present with your child as much as possible.
- Continue to follow the rhythm of the day that you are used to.
- Try to ignore negative behavior and reward positive behavior.
- Give your child materials on which he can take out anger and aggression (punching bag, pillow, hammer tap, old toys).
- If you have trouble sleeping, you can leave a light on in the bedroom or in the hallway.
- Before going to sleep, it is best to maintain a fixed order (wearing pajamas, brushing teeth, reading a story, etc.).
- If your child does not want to go to school, try to make arrangements with the teacher. Start slowly by only going to school in the mornings. Build this up until your child wants to go all week again.
- Accept the setback in development and don’t make a big deal about it.
To help your child come to terms with the hospital experience, it is good to talk about it. You can do this using:
- Reading books about the hospital.
- Reenacting a hospital situation, for example using a doctor’s case.
- Making a drawing or scrapbook about the hospital.
Finally
If your child continues to exhibit behavioral problems for a long time, it is best to contact your doctor or child health clinic.