Pictures of sick child in hospital on FB?

[TheWomanWhoMisplacedHerHusband]

Close-up shots of very sick child sleeping/with drip in arms/trying to smile for camera with balloons people have given them with updates like 'thanks for the balloon they cheered her up a bit' taken by parents have come up on my feed (they don't know what's wrong with child yet).
Aibu to be a bit shocked at these?

Although I can see why it may make you feel uncomfortable im think yabu. Dd was seriously ill and in hospital and unfortunately spent her 1st birthday in there. After missing her birth and hoping this milestone to be some kind of closure to the hellish first 12 months I still wanted memories of her first friggen birthday. So if that meant photos of her cot decorated with streamers banners and balloons all be it with her with oxygen pipes drips n god knows what. I don't give a shiney shite if that offended a minority on Facebook. I was proud as punch of what my lil family had achieved and its a way of coping.

Paper I think at a time when your child is sick in hospital, the last thing you need is people judging you. That's why the OP is getting a hard time.

I do have friends who don't post any pictures of their dcs who I would love to see, but that's their choice

So much time uploading etc? It takes seconds to update FB, and hospital involves hours and days of boredom.
Have you spent a week in hopsital with your child? Have you sat in a chair night after night watching them sleep? If not, you haven't a clue and should shut your trap. However they choose to cope with it is fine.

Sorry OP it was Charlotte who said attention seeking. Should have clarified.

but that's their choice

And this is there choice to share a tough time with people they thought were friends. Like I said just de-friend them if you are going to be so judgemental.

I think you're being unfair. If the child doesn't mind or isn't aware of it then that is the parents choice and may be their only way of coping with what is going on. Its nice to be able to reach out for some virtual support when you are going through a crisis.

In the US it is very common for parents to set up facebook pages and websites for children going through cancer, as a way of generating support and donations (because as I'm sure people know the health system in the US is ridiculously expensive for cancer treatments). No one bats an eyelid, even at some of the most heartbreaking images posted. To me if it helps the family and helps the child it is all good.

Exactly onthebottom when DS was in HDU I couldn't even sleep (haha ye right) in the same room as him, I was given a bed elsewhere on the ward to try to get some rest. That made for some very long nights and mobile internet was a godsend!

this family have a sick child their friends and family are worried about them all a picture on facebook is connecting with these people, it is a support mechanisim imo, not something I would do I don't think but i guess you don't know that until you are in that position.

Putting anything on FB is attention seeking but that is not a bad thing a lot of the time. People are allowed to seek attention when it is needed.

but facebook is attention seeking I agree it is no bad thing sometimes, people need to reach out to people .

To follow on from my post earlier (sort of going on a tangent) many parents who have children going through the most horrendous cancer treatments choose to publish those photos because the media don't want to see them. They want to see the smiling bald kid with the balloons and the thumbs up - they won't show the horrible reality of child cancer. Maybe if they did people would give as much support to charities supporting childhood cancer as they do to those with breast cancer for example.

Many parents in the US are upset because the Whitehouse chose to display a pink flag / light for breast cancer and yet did not agree to fly a yellow ribbon for the ronan Thompson foundation (supporting childhood cancer sufferers and funding research).

As I said, I'm waffling. I just understand where the parents are coming from.

One of my school friends has a daughter who is battling cancer, her parents have a facebook page to raise awareness and fund-raise of research into this type of cancer. Seeing pictures of her and her family just helps to bring home what a hellish time they are going through, it can't possibly give the full picture but it just raises awareness.

I think the naysayers should try spending months on end over years in hospital with a sick child. Then they might find themselves reaching out to their friends via fb.
Honestly, they havent got a clue what it is like. ffs.

Yabu to judge. Hospitals are very stressful places to be with children but they can also be very boring an also lonely.

Yanbu about your own feelings on the matter. My ds was very ill and hospitalised and we took some photos but would never want anyone but close family to see them as he looked so vulnerable.

The last thing I wanted to do was post on Facebook about it, with or without photos. I didn't actually tell anyone he was so sick at the time, as I didn't want people to be asking how he was when we didnt know how he was ourselves.

People vary so much in how they deal with stressful situations.

dd has a friend who had a serious illness she is much better now,we followed her mums updates on facebook and liked comments said a few words on the updates offered what support we could, what people say on these pictures is not going to make these children better but I can imagine hanging about a hospital with a ill child is a pretty lonely place to be,

I understand the cancer support thing totally and the prem babies and I guess I wouldn't have posted about that (as I've got friends who've posted such pics).

This was different, in that the child was rushed to hospital with an unknown ailment which came on very suddenly, pics put up straightaway, child now recovering. Just seemed like an odd time to post pictures.

You have a choice to hide pictures and updates ,people have a choice how they use their FB pages.

That's how FB works.

Why is it different? Perhaps you could provide a list of when it is and isn't allowed to post pics?

Op YANBU
Dd was in hosp a few times in a year. And I understand how much waiting around it involves. And it is boring and worrying. I spent alot of time googling and getting myself worked up. But I never uploaded statuses let alone pictures. I told a few close people what was going on and they told others who needed to know.
I didn't wana put my DDs health all over the Internet tbh.

That was your choice, other people choose to do things differently.

I think OP is getting a bit of a hard time here.

If I were in hospital with a mystery illness, I wouldn't particularly want my photo shared on FB.

But I think it's probably not our place to judge the child's parents (walk in their shoes and all that). Also, in hospital there is a lot of hanging around & uploading a photo takes seconds, so I wouldn't criticise the parents on that score

Really usual?

Our dd1 was extremely ill 2 year's ago with a life threatening illness, 4 hospitals in 3 day's as they couldn't diagnose her. She spent over a week in hospital as did I with no visitors allowed excpect dh as she was so ill. I held it together that whole time even though I was worried sick , exhausted and too fall apart wouldn't help anyone. Anyway dh had been keeping family updated via Facebook and we had hundredes of Facebook well wishes and update enquiries from them and friends daily. When she was better I read them all..... I broke down massively to see all the support and concerns for all our friends and family for her made me feel that we weren't alone. We had added a few pictures of her in her hospital bed when she started to get better, she looked so ill but to see her have the energy after so long to hold her head up and open her eyes when she had been so ill was something we wanted to share

Another boy died that weekend from the same thing as his parents accepted the 1st diagnosis that was wrong the same as dd, we thank our lucky stars.

YABU!!