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Are you feeling lost in how to support your child through a medical experience?

We strive to meet you and your family exactly where you and in your journey and provide child life supports to you from the comfort of your home!

12/11/2025

Helpful scripts to keep in your back pocket for times when your child refuses to go to the doctor when you are supposed to be out the door.

Ask:
Why don’t you want to go to the doctor?
[remember, kids worries aren’t always grownup worries]

Normalize:
Did you know, lots of other kids and grownups go to the doctor for checkups/to get medicine.

Share:
Your body needs extra help to get better.

OR

The doctor wants to check how strong and healthy your body is growing.

What to try next time when preparing for the doctors visit:
Let’s watch the Daniel Tiger episode when he goes to the doctor and see what he does.

OR

Let’s read about Franklin the Turtle going to the doctor when we get home and see how he feels.

OR

Let’s play doctor and learn about a checkup again.

29/10/2025

Choices you can offer to give your child control during a poke (shot/lab draw/IV/infusion).

Creating a coping plan ahead of time with choices can allow for a child to practice in a safe setting when their thinking brain is online and they are calm.

Some helpful choices you can provide are:

Do you want to look at what the nurses are doing or look away at your favorite show/look at bubbles?

Do you want mommy to count to 3 before the poke happens or no counting?

Do you want to sit on your own or do you want to sit on daddy’s lap and get a hug?

Do you want to use a buzzy bee or numbing spray? (Confirm with medical team prior to offering this choice to ensure accurate pain support options are offered.)

Do you want a reminder of the steps as they are happening, or would you rather focus on your activity?

What reminder do you want when it is time to start using your deep breaths? Pretending to blow out birthday candles?

Parent Tip: if your child is escalated during the medical experience and unable to follow their coping plan it is helpful to then to minimize choices in the moment as this can be overwhelming. If their thinking brain isn’t online they won’t be able to make a choice.

20/10/2025

Kids look to their parents for cues. Even if they are experiencing stress and their thinking brain is offline, they still are influenced by the people and environment around them.

Even if you, as a parent/caregiver, are feeling anything but calm, here are a few things you can do to help regulate your own emotions and help co-regulate your child’s big feelings.

* Model calm breathing—take a long, slow exhale (to a count of 4) - this will not only bring down your heart rate and increase your senes of calm, but will encourage your child to match your rhythm

* Use a low, soft voice

*Turn down or remove extra stimulation (dim the lights, close doors, loosen tight clothing, adjust temperature)

* Offer gentle, reassuring smiles

* Give soothing touch—like slow strokes on their arm or hand

* Show calm interactions with staff so your child senses the environment is safe

Co-regulating during a stressful moment does not necessarily mean you are not still experiencing your own big feelings. It is also not a tool to hide your own feelings.

When children witness loved ones expressing emotions and it is acknowledged and the loved one can can share what is making them feel those emotions, it can be healthy and reassuring for the child to know grownups feel things too and it is okay.

03/10/2025

You may have wondered why we use an ambiguous characters in our books.

Our character is intentional, not just because it’s cute (because c’mon they’re cute right), but because our books are meant to serve as more than just a learning tool.

We want to give control back to the child.

The child can choose if they want the character to be them, or their parent, or their friend. Or it can stay an ambiguous, unknown person. They can choose to keep themselves distanced from the story if that feels safe. Or they can choose to make the story relatable to them and feel empowered by the similarities.

Children and families may be at different parts of their coping journey when they encounter one of our books and we want to meet them where they are!

30/09/2025

Bibliotherapy is the use of books to help children understand and cope with their feelings, experiences, or challenges. By reading stories with characters who go through similar situations, children can see their own feelings reflected, learn healthy ways to cope, and feel less alone.

Books promote healing and growth.

The additional great thing about books is you don’t have to be a professional or have any background or training to use them! Anybody in a child’s life can pick up a book about a complex topic to support a child who might be facing a stressor or medical experience.

24/09/2025

Meet Madison! The co-author of our newest children’s book, What is an Appendectomy?

“My name is Madison Matthews, and I am an emergency department Certified Child Life Specialist based in Tennessee. I earned my degree from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, followed by a Child Life Practicum in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and a Child Life Internship in San Diego, California.

Working in the ED offers a uniquely fast-paced and dynamic environment—one moment I am preparing a child for emergency surgery, the next I am helping a child understand a new brain tumor diagnosis, narrating CPR in real time to loved ones, and everything in between.

I first met a Certified Child Life Specialist when I was just 8 years old, and that experience stayed with me. Today, I am deeply passionate about helping pediatric patients understand what is happening to their bodies and why. I strive to foster positive coping by using developmentally appropriate language, always aiming to speak with children in a way that respects them as individuals—with honesty, empathy, and respect.”

We are so lucky to have you, Madison! Reach out to preview the book, or purchase links found in our bio!

25/06/2025

When a child understands what is happening inside their body it decreases their fears and empowers them to participate in care of keeping their body healthy and strong.

When you use books or visuals and developmentally appropriate language, it allows children of different ages to understand abstract concepts.

Learning about their immune system and germs can help children to do their job, or part, in helping their body stay healthy, especially during cold and flu season - anyone else feel like the “season” is now all year long?!

12/04/2025

Hey families in the Bay Area (Northern California), come join for our first Teddy Bear Clinic hosted with

Kids get to explore medical equipment while getting to be a doctor or nurse and give a “check-up” to a teddy bear. This is a fun way to invite children to play through things they may have experienced, like when they visit the doctor and have to get a shot.

Reach out if you have any questions. We will see you April 19th!

Will you be joining us 🙋‍♀️🙋‍♂️

13/03/2025

As a fellow parent, we know we are always down to try ANYTHING to support a medical experience going smoother.

As child life specialists, we are here to help bring the science-backed tools to have in your back pocket.

When a child is having a tough time following directions during something medical, that is incredibly normal and appropriate. Their main goal and job in life is to play and explore, as well as keep themselves out of scenarios they perceive as stressful, scary or painful.

When they are in a new or stressful situation, their brain may perceive this as danger and turn on their fight-or-flight response. This can hinder their ability to tap into their logic, reasoning, direction following, or utilize coping skills.

You can help calm their “fight-or-flight” response by encouraging a little humming. This is like a light switch which turns on the parasympathetic nervous system - the part of the nervous system which helps bring your body to a calm, composed state... the opposite of the sympathetic nervous system which is responsible for running your fight-or-flight response.

Make it a game by humming their favorite song with them, repeating humming patterns, or seeing if you can hold a hummmm for 3 or 5 seconds.

24/01/2025

Including your child in the medical experience has multiple positive benefits, including a child’s ability to utilize coping tools and feel a sense of mastery over the experience.

One way to begin this process of inclusion is by sitting down together and creating a coping plan.

This opportunity for open, honest discussion supports in trust building and increases the chances for a positive experience with the medical environment.

But where to begin?

Start by explain the simple steps for what is going to happen during this appointment/treatment/procedure. It can be very general, describing where you are going, and the simple steps of what will be happening.

Next, prompt exploration of what has helped them in the past, either in a similar medical scenario, or in any other situation they perceived as “hard” - such as falling and scraping their knee, etc. Help them draw on what coping tools they already gravitated towards and found helpful.

Next, create a concrete plan for what supports they would prefer, such as proximity to you (the parent/caregiver), what they would like to use for distraction, how they want to be reminded to use deep breaths, and what information they would like before and during (such as signal for beginning, and cues during treatment/procedure).

Creating a plan for what is to follow the appointment is helpful to emphasize there will be an ‘end’, and gives them something to focus on which might feel more exciting or normalizing.

Click the LINK in our bio to get access to some printable coping plan templates you could use to help prompt this discussion, and never hesitate to reach out for 1-to-1 guidance on how else to support your child through this process!

08/01/2025

It can be draining on both a parent and child when there is a need to attend multiple medical appointments due to a diagnosis or treatment. We have heard from so many parents how it can be additionally hard, hearing your child verbalize just not wanting to go - we get it, they’re over it and yet it is still an important thing for them to do.

After validating their need for control when they say they don’t want to attend an appointment, go further and really explore the WHY. For a lot of kids, the medical appointments disrupt their time to play or spend time with their friends or peers.

Is there a way to support their why and still accomplishing going to the appointment?! Can they have a play date after the appointment? Can the next appointment be scheduled for a different time that doesn’t interfere with school? Can you plan special playtime/activity following appointment?

The need for control also parallels the need for choices. They don’t have a choice in the need for a medical visit, but what other choices are possible? Activity to bring to the appointment? Activity following the visit? Food they want to eat after?

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