When children must have medical procedures or interventions, the effects on the child can be traumatizing in ways that are often overlooked by science-minded doctors and worried parents who are largely—and understandably—focused on the physical and medical issues. When it comes to early medical procedures—whether it’s surgery, hospitalization, or simply placing tubes in the child’s ears—the emotional fallout for the child can amount to a trauma which has life-long consequences.
For example, when a child’s surgery is successful, the parents and doctors breathe a sigh of relief and consider the medical problems are now resolved. And they’re right: modern medicine has done a small miracle. Aside for healing up from the surgery, everyone is good to go. Why would there be further problems when the doctors have fixed everything? Well, that’s true from a medical and physical point of view. It all makes logical sense to adults who can understand how bodies work and how surgery has helped.
But the child’s experience is very different.
A parent once told me, “I’m constantly dealing with doctors and tons of medical [details]. When I know my kid is totally okay, that everything is taken care of—when this is all finally over!—then we can start thinking about feelings.”
I get it. I have kids, and finding the head space to think about not only their physical health but their emotional well-being can be hard. Just know that the emotional scars from medical procedures can be as long-lasting and debilitating as an untreated medical problem. I’ve seen this firsthand so many times, working not only with kids but a surprisingly large number of adults whose current issues are directly linked to medical trauma in their childhood. Still, there’s a lot of hope and possibility here: when parents anticipate and speak to their child’s experience, they can keep the medical procedure from becoming traumatic.
A note about these ten posts
The ten posts that comprise the “deeper dive” into Medical Trauma are best read in order as they build one upon the other. You can pick and choose certain sections as needed, but some later sections might lose some context if you haven’t read previous posts.
(For a very, very condensed version about how early medical procedures can be traumatic for kids, check out the post, “Any Medical Procedure Can Traumatize Your Child.”
Related Posts
Medical Trauma, Part 2: What Kind of Procedures Are We Talking About?
All the factors that make a procedure traumatic, from the child’s age and body parts involved, to the invasiveness and recovery from the procedure.
Any Medical Procedure Can Traumatize Your Child
Medical procedures are often traumatic for young children, creating lifelong emotional problems. Here’s how parents can prevent this.
