Friends baby in hospital

[MummyPig89]

Just looking for advice from anyone that may have been in this situation. My friends little boy is in intensive care, he’s had surgery and isn’t doing too well. I have no idea how to help them. I’ve offered to help with childcare for their elder child but really want to do more. Has anyone been in this situation and what did people do that helped you out? Anything you were bought or given that helped?

Your offer of help will be much appreciated for the older children.
Sometimes there’s nothing extra we can do but it’s a helpless feeling.
Keep on sending messages of love telling them you’re thinking of them.
Offer to cook them dinner. But be prepared for offers not to be taken up depending on who else is about for them to support them.

Food/coffee. They won’t be concentrating on looking after themselves or want to go to far from their boy so bringing them half decent food would be great.

Hot food and message with no expectation of a reply at all just saying you're thinking of them. Maybe say you'll pop over to feed pets, water plants etc too, offer to wash clothes, basically any of the tasks that would take them away from your child but will make them feel more human.

You sound like a good person op.

The coffee sachets cappuccino type things are handy and food. Baby wipes/face wipes for a quick clean.

I was in hospital for a week with our 11 month old earlier in the year and the things that helped was someone coming in to watch him just so we could pop out and freshen up properly or go and get some proper food rather than the hospital stuff.

Someone filled our fridge with necessities like milk bread and butter for when we came home was also very handy.
Lack of sleep had meant I hadn't really thought about much else

When my son was born we spent alot of time in hospital due to illness which was unexpected and the main thing i worried about was my eldest sons childcare so if you are able to offer help there that would be such a weight lifted.
The other issue i had was food, i wasnt entitled to hospital meals as i wasnt breastfeeding so had to arrange for regular parcels of food to be brought in with relatives as the hospital restaurant was expensive and crap.
The other help that was useful was a change of clothes and washing being done for me and baby.

i hope he starts to recover

Thanks everyone. They’ve had such a tough time and I can’t stop thinking about them, just seems so unfair. Making meals for them is a great idea, they’re taking it in turns to come back from hospital each night so cooking would be the last thing on their mind I’m sure.

My daughter was in hospital for 5 weeks, one of the kindest things people did for us was making individual meals that they left in the freezer for us at home. Some we’d eat at home, some we’d take with us to eat at hospital depending on which of us parents were staying over at hospital