Supporting Siblings: How to Give Accurate Information During Healthcare Situations

Does it sound familiar to struggle with supporting your children’s siblings during healthcare situations? Have you been told to simply ignore their feelings and focus solely on the sick child? This approach can leave siblings feeling neglected and unsupported, adding to the stress of an already difficult situation.

It’s painful to see your children suffer, but it’s even more painful to see them suffer alone. In this episode, we’ll provide you with effective strategies to support your children’s siblings during healthcare situations, helping them feel heard and understood. Let’s work together to make their experience a little easier.

In this episode, you will be able to:

• Discover effective ways to support siblings during healthcare situations.
• Learn how to provide accurate and helpful information to siblings in a way that is easy to understand.
• Unlock the secrets to fostering better communication between family members.
• Gain insights into addressing the emotional needs of siblings in difficult times.
• Explore techniques for normalizing the hospital experience to lessen sibling anxiety.

If we don’t give kids age-appropriate information, they will start to come up with their own summaries of what is going on. -Katie Taylor, CCLS

The key moments in this episode are:
00:00:21 – Introduction,

00:01:58 – Communication with Siblings,

00:06:02 – Emotional Needs of Siblings,

00:09:33 – Normalize the Experience for Siblings,

00:11:12 – Conclusion

Resources:

• Head to Child Life On Calloncall.com/Parents to get our free Resource Kit for parents.
• Follow us on Instagram and TikTok for more resources and content.
• Check out the podcast episode with Michelle, a mother who shares her experience of navigating her son’s cancer diagnosis with her daughter.
• Look up sibling support organizations and communities to connect with other peers who have siblings going through similar experiences.
• Reach out and comment if you have any questions or feedback.