The Sibling Connection Experiencing the Death of a Sibling as a Child A child's experience of losing a sibling depends largely on their understanding of death, which is associated with age and developmental level. Children suffer not only the actual loss, but a lifetime of living in a family which may have become dysfunctional after the loss. Infants suffer from the grief of caregivers. The grief stricken family members are not as attuned to the baby as they were prior to the loss. An infant who has been cared for by an older sibling will feel the loss.
Toddlers think of death as temporary and reversible.
Toddlers grieving the loss of a sibling have been known to become mute for a period, or to regress to an earlier stage of development, such as wetting the bed. Children in the younger age groups may have thought about an older sibling as a parent figure who took care of them, and wonder who will take care of them now that he or she is gone. Children aged 6-8 have seen dead birds and bugs, seen people die on television, and heard it talked about. They think of death as a scary thing that they can hide from, by hiding under the bed, for example. They associate death with ghosts and skeletons.