After the Operation

Parent Tip: Reducing Your Child's Anxiety or Discomfort

The staff at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center gives tips that parents and / or caregivers can use to reduce your child's anxiety and discomfort.

Help reduce your child's anxiety and discomfort by:

  • Encouraging your child to take deep steady breaths
  • Rocking or holding your child
  • Encouraging your child to read books or do other quiet activities
  • Having your child rest in a comfortable space
  • Doing familiar things that usually help to calm your child
  • Gently offering your child reassurance

Help your child resume normal behavior by:

  • Reading books about hospitals and doctors
  • Drawing pictures about the hospital experience
  • Playing hospital using dolls
  • Making a scrapbook about the hospital
  • Journaling about the hospital experience