AnonyMouse_55654 Posted February 20, 2016 Posted February 20, 2016 Hi lovely people hoping for some advice Before half term one of our children was diagnosed with a life long illness. He is the youngest recorded case and the hospital don't have any 'child friendly' medicine he can have and he finds it really hard to take it. He's only just turned 5. We are working really closely with the parents and have a care plan in place, but mum is really worried about him not taking his medicine. He is also bordering on the spectrum so when the nurses used the analogy that the medicine was like an army going into his body to fight the nasty disease he took it literally and is scared to take his medicine because little men are going to start fighting inside him! Before the half term I made a social story about taking medicine, and we are going to have a nurse come in the first week back to talk about how she helps people at hospital. We are going to have a 'toy hospital' (going totally off the school topic, don't tell my head ) so we can show the hospital in a positive light, and one of the teachers who is asthmatic is going to come and talk to us about how she has to take her inhaler everyday. I wondered if anyone is/has been in a similar situation? We don't want to make it too obvious and make too much of a big deal of it but would really appreciate some advice as to how other people would handle this? Thank you
AnonyMouse_64 Posted February 23, 2016 Posted February 23, 2016 Hi and welcome to the forum. I'm sorry you haven't had any replies yet but things were very quiet last week with it being half term. I'll move this into general topics where you'll maybe get more views and some useful replies.
AnonyMouse_30128 Posted February 23, 2016 Posted February 23, 2016 Poor chap! personally I think I would avoid the 'play'angle because you have no control over what people will say! so you might get children saying oh when my Nan went to hospital she died cos the medicine couldn't make her better.....etc etc!! It really is often about making it normal, after all he is going to have to take this forever ( I wonder whether it might be worth mentioning what the condition is to the forumites as I suspect someone will have had a case before! (I often joke that we have had at least one of everything!!!!!) How often does he need to take the medicine during the day? is there somewhere quiet and comfortable for him to go to have it? or could you make a 'special place' , den, tent,?????? does he like rewards/stickers (chocolate buttons!!!! ....don't tell the health visitor but if needs must until he gets his head round the problem) try to make it as positive as you can. We had a little chap last year who had a very rare condition which meant we had to do regular blood tests and also be prepared for injecting him/ epipen him / and shove various items down him in an emergency.....his care was so complicated that even his uncle wouldn't look after him!
AnonyMouse_55654 Posted February 25, 2016 Author Posted February 25, 2016 Thank you I hadn't thought of the play situation turning out like that but now you say it, it does make sense. His condition is IBD which is a form of Crohn's disease. He suffers from really bad stomach cramps and sometimes can't control his bowels. We are very lucky and have our own toilet in the classroom so if he has to go, he can. He's also anaemic and gets really tired in the afternoons poor kid just seems to be getting everything going at the moment!
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