Parent Tip: Talking with Your Child About Falling Asleep for Surgery
The staff at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center understands that talking with your child about surgery can be difficult. You may find it helpful to use these explanations when talking about surgery and anesthesia with your child:
Before you have your operation, 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 gas) from a clear, soft 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 plastic straw. The doctor might put the IV in a vein in your hand or arm. A vein is the blue line 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 operation, but you will never be alone. Doctors and nurses will be with you the whole time.
