The Child Life Diaries

From the Archives: How Child Life Helps pt 2
Earlier this week we had a little 5-year-old, let's call her Emily, visit the ER for constipation. After 2 unsuccessful enemas, the doctors and nurses decided it would be best to just have her drink a medicine that would help do the job of the enema. Little Emily would drink a sip, cry about how bad it tasted, and then spend the time between sips bargaining with her mom for alternatives to avoid taking another sip. During this chaos, one of the ed techs called for me. I went in... Read more...
From the Archives: Camp Erin Bereavement Camp
March 2, 2015Over the weekend I volunteered at Camp Erin, a bereavement camp for children and teens that have experienced the loss of a loved one. Because I am a CCLS, I was a "clinical point person" at the camp - someone that the children in my group could turn to if they were feeling overwhelmed or wanted to discuss some deeper emotions that they were feeling. My group consisted of nine 6-8 year old girls. We did art therapy, music therapy, and even pet therapy! All with the goals... Read more...
From the Archives: How Child Life Helps
April 7, 2016(The patient's name has been changed for privacy.) When I walked into 6-year-old Bettys room to do an IV teaching, she was nowhere in sight. I asked mom if she was in the bathroom when Betty started to scream from under the sink.  (Side note: Can you imagine being so scared that you hide under a sink?! )"No!" "I don't want the needle!" "You're not going to pinch me!" I then crouched down and sat in front of Betty to introduce myself; "Hi, Betty - my name is Diane... Read more...
From the Archives: Grape Medicine Cups
Taking medicine isn't always easy - especially when it needs to be taken every day for an extended period of time. Non-compliance with taking medicine can also cause a great deal of stress for parents, especially when it's the one thing keeping the patient from being discharged. One of my patients was having a hard time with this task so to make things a bit more tolerable, we decorated her medicine cups. This patient really wanted it to be grape flavor however we couldn't give her that option for this... Read more...
Back to blogging
I found out about the job of child life specialist in a child development class in college. It was a friday class which meant many students skipped it, but being the type-a leo that I am, I never missed a class. It was during this lecture one day that the professor briefly mentioned Chid Life. And I mean.. briefly.. I'm talking "... and another job opportunity with children is the role of child life specialist. Ok, moving on". I jotted down the name and looked it up online when I... Read more...