Overview
When your child needs health care, it can be tough on the whole family. Fortunately, you are not alone. Everyone at M Health Fairview Pediatrics is by your side, bringing our unique blend of kid-focused kindness and breakthrough medical excellence. You can do this, and we’re here to help.
To help, we’ve compiled some of our best advice for supporting your child through medical experiences – including injections, medicines, and procedures. We share strategies that you can include your child’s siblings in the healthcare experience so your family stays connected and strong. We also introduce some of the services, specialists, and amenities available through our Child and Family Life Services department.
General tips for your family's healthcare experience
Learning your child is sick or injured may send you into an unfamiliar world. As you begin to navigate this new reality for your family, here are a few recommendations from other families and our care team members:
- Get to know your child’s healthcare team – and remember that you are the most important part of it!
- Ask as many questions as you need. You may want to keep a notebook or digital device handy so you can write questions down as they occur to you and then ask them during the next care team meeting.
- Be calm and encouraging in front of your child. Children take their cues about how to react, or what to feel, from their parents or caregivers.
- Be honest with your child or teen but also consider their age. Use age-appropriate words and concepts.
- Bring items from home to make your child feel more comfortable and at ease in a medical setting. Talk with your child’s healthcare team about “what to bring” guidelines.
Resources to help your child
Talking to children about a medical experience
Many children and teens want to know what to expect when they visit a doctor, clinic, or hospital or when they have a medical test or procedure. We offer a few ways to start those conversations, so your child feels calm and in control during a medical experience.
Helping your child take medicine
There are lots of tried-and-true ways to make the process of giving and taking medicine easier for your child – and for you, too. This page outlines a few of our best tips to help make medicine time a breeze.
Helping your child cope with injections
Although shots are no fun, a little needle poke now can help keep your child healthy for a lifetime. The good news? There is a lot you can do to help your child cope with getting an injection. We offer our best tips for children of all ages.
Helping your child cope with medical procedures
There are simple strategies you can use before, during, and after a medical procedure to help soothe your child's worries, support your child during the procedure, and help your child feel successful. Here, we share some tips to help you prepare your child.
Sibling resources and keeping families connected
When one child is facing a significant health issue, it affects the whole family, including the child's well siblings. Fortunately, there are lots of things families can do to meet each siblings' unique emotional needs and keep siblings connected to each other.
Integrative health
Our focus on whole-child care means we take a broader approach to healing that includes the body, mind, spirit, and community. M Health Fairview’s Integrative Health Program blends the “high-tech” world of modern medicine with the “high-touch” world of holistic care to support the whole health of children and adolescents.
Art, music, and nature-based therapy programs
Well-being is much more than physical health. It includes body, mind, and spirit – and all three elements are important for a child's healing, growing, and flourishing. That's why M Health Fairview Pediatrics offers a robust suite of integrative health programs for children and families, including art therapy, music therapy, and nature-based therapy. Participating in these therapeutic activities can decrease children's anxiety and stress, improve mood, increase sensory stimulation, and hasten recovery.
Child and Family Life Services
The Child and Family Life Services department at M Health Fairview Pediatrics consists of healthcare professionals focused on the psychosocial needs of children, teens and their families. Understanding that families will enter and exit the healthcare system together, child life professionals aim to support family relationships and coping while they navigate healthcare experiences.