Parents can do much to ease the trauma of surgery for children.
Scary, to say the least. And the hospital, with its masked doctors and nurses, can be a confusing and frightening place. In fact, half of all surgical patients between the ages of two and 10 show evidence of trauma for at least two weeks after their operation. And many of these young patients exhibit negative behavior for months afterwards, including bed-wetting, nightmares and separation anxiety. There are good words and bad words to use when preparing children for surgery.