Reply to At what age would you leave your child alone in the hospital?

Forum Index » Tweens and Teens

Reply to "At what age would you leave your child alone in the hospital?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP here. I have a child with a chronic condition on her tenth hospitalization. She's now 12 and has never been alone even for the time it would take to get coffee. I just get amazed each time I'm here how many kids are in their rooms totally alone. Little kids and babies. It makes me sad.[/quote]

I'm so sorry about your child.  Not everyone has the economic freedom you have to stay with their child at all times.  Judge less and if you are inclined, visit with a child who is alone.

-former pediatric nurse[/quote]

NP here, you can be saddened by something, and not blame the parent.

My kid was hospitalized for an extended period on the respiratory ward as a toddler.  I was fortunate enough to be there.  There were several young kids, kids with CF, as well as two kids who were recovering for RSV, whose parents weren't there most of the time, and it was clearly very hard for the kid.  The nurses tried so hard, spending any spare moments they had in the room, stopping by whenever the kids would cry, but you'd walk past and see them standing in their crib sobbing or crying in the oxygen tent.  My heart would break for them, and for their parents because I know they were caught between a rock and a hard place.  Because of infection concerns the respiratory ward doesn't have a playroom like other wards, and the nurses were clear that it wasn't an option for me to go in (I offered) because I presumably had my own kid's germs on me.

I wouldn't leave my kid in a hospital, unless my ability to put bread on the table or a roof over our head, or provide health insurance was jeopardized.  But I can't judge a parent who makes a different choice.  I also don't have more than one kid.  I can still be sad about it, and sad that our country doesn't have the kind of safety net that would make it so a mother or father might not have to make that choice. [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics