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None of us would wish for our children to have to go through the experience of having to have surgery. When we think of surgery we often think of major, high stakes procedures, but in actual fact the majority of pediatric surgeries are non-emergency procedures and they carry much lower risk than emergency procedures. There are any number of reasons that your child might be recommended for an elective procedure. In some cases, these are necessary procedures in order to improve quality of life and sometimes they are entirely optional but are strongly advised.Whatever the reason, if your child is due to undergo a surgical procedure, you will want to do everything you can to prepare them adequately for it. For many parents, the stress of trying to work out how to best prepare their child for the experience causes more stress and anxiety than the thought of the procedure itself. For a child, even a completely safe and relatively minor procedure can seem like something big and scary. For parents, their natural instincts are to reduce the fear and anxiety as much as possible for their kids.
In This Post:
Prepare Yourself
Kids are experts at picking up on subtle clues as to how their parents are really feeling, especially when their parents are anxious or worried. The first thing you need to do is to take a deep breath and to put yourself at ease. If you are scared or apprehensive, then this will rub off on your child and it will be very difficult to help to keep them calm.
All About Anesthesia
Make sure that you understand the procedure that your child will be undergoing, what it entails, and what the recovery period afterwards will be like. Most procedures will involve some kind of anesthesia and it is worth talking to your child about exactly what this is. Most children are somewhat aware that, in order to undergo surgery, a patient is put to sleep and this interpretation is fine. As a parent, the thought of anesthesia might be worrying but it is incredibly safe. You can learn a lot about anesthesia online, in fact you could even take an AANA Approved CEU course online and Valley Anesthesia are one group who offer such a thing. For most parents, taking such a course is a more dramatic measure than necessary, but the option is there and shows the power of self education.
Ask Questions
If either you or your child has any questions or specific worries about the procedure, then be sure to ask your doctor any questions either of you has. This will put both your minds at ease and will help to make your child feel a part of the decision-making process. It is important that they feel confident that you understand what is going on as children put their total faith in their parents.Having a child preparing to undergo any surgical procedure often causes parents a perfectly understandable level of anxiety, but most parents also find that, by researching beforehand and talking with their doctor, they can alleviate many of their most prominent concerns.