Helping Kids Cope With a Seriously Ill Family Member

Bright Horizons

Bright Horizons explains the need to include your child in discussions about the illness of a family member starting with preparation for the conversation, starting the conversation, and how to support your healthy child.

Everett Clinic

This article gives three tips parents can use to help their child cope with a parent’s illness.

Health Care Report Pittsburgh

Every family’s situation is different, just as every child is unique. But there are some general tips that will help parents have discussions with their children about illness.

Liana Lowenstein, MSW and Brianne Thompson, MSW, RSW

This article is by two social workers and covers: Talking with your children about illness, what to tell children based upon their ages, how to talk with children about dying, special considerations when a child’s sibling is ill, activities that the family can do together, activities for a parent to do for a child, and selected additional reading for children, and for parents.

Parents

A parent’s illness is scary for children. These tips can help put your kids at ease.

Thrive Global

In 1990, my mother wrote an article for the Journal of Contemporary Dialysis and Nephrology instructing parents with chronic illness on how to help their children cope.