Parent Tip: Talking with Your Child About Falling Asleep for Surgery
You may find the following language helpful when talking about the procedure and anesthesia with your child:
- Before you have your procedure, the doctors will give you medicine to help you fall asleep in the sleepy air room (induction room).
- There are different ways to get sleepy medicine (anesthesia medication). You may breathe sleepy air (anesthesia air) from a soft, clear mask. You can choose the flavor of air you want to smell, such as bubble gum, cherry, strawberry or watermelon.
- The air will make you feel very sleepy. It does not hurt.
- For adult size children, the medicine sometimes is given through a thin soft tube, called an IV tube. It looks like a very small, flexible plastic straw.
- The doctor might put the IV in a vein in your hand or arm. Veins are blue lines under your skin. The sleepy medicine goes right through the tube into your body, and you fall asleep very quickly.
- You will be asleep while you have the procedure, but you will never be alone. You will not feel, hear or see anything while you are asleep.
- Doctors and nurses will be with you the whole time.
- You won’t wake up until after the procedure is done and a nurse will be with you when you wake up.
