Bit of a long shot but does anyone have any suggestions for helping toddlers in medical settings? He’s in and out of hospital at the moment with medical issues (coughing blood, shadows on chest X-ray), so I have to take him to A&E a lot and we’re expecting a lot of appointments.
My son is 16 months old and has some developmental delays in terms of his communication. He’s still non-verbal (no words at all) and completely non-communicative (no hand gestures), so reasoning with him isn’t an option.
He doesn’t understand that we have to stay in our curtain cubicle and he’ll kick and fight me to be put down. If I put him on a chair he just gets off. A toy/Netflix keeps him entertained, but only for so long. He also absolutely hates the sticky plasters for heart rate monitoring and having his temperature taken, so when they have to come do those it’s so difficult to get him to calm after. Although he’s ill, he does the typical kid thing where as soon as they go to see a doctor they want to run around, play, show off etc. Given that we don’t get to go anywhere at the moment, he gets so excited to see new people he just wants to look at them and play with them and investigate everything.
Being 6 months pregnant myself it’s so exhausting keeping him contained. I suffer from SPD in pregnancy so after every hospital visit I’m in absolute agony from constantly having to move him around, restrain him and pick him up.
His dad can’t come in with us because of Covid restrictions, and I’m the one who’s with him 99% of the time in order to tell the doctors what he’s like. I also know that his dad won’t push the doctors for answers as much as I will, and he’s been messed around so much I just hate him going to appointments without me. Plus his dad is usually at work/has to get up for work if it’s through the night.
Anything at all that helps you to reason with toddlers or keep them still is so much appreciated. If I have 10 methods that all work to some extent for 10 minutes then it’s better than nothing 🤞🏻