Telling my daughter that my son is having an operation

[stevc999]

I am looking for advice on telling my 3 1/2 year old daughter about her little brother going to hospital for quite a serious operation.

I can find lots of information on helping the child who is having the op but can't find much about siblings - are there any tips that I should use?

sorry about your DS.

I have a 3.2 year old daughter and a 13 month son.

If it was me I would tell my DD that DS is a little bit poorly and that he has gone to the doctor so he can make him better.

Will she go into the hospital to see him after the operation ??

stevc999 - when my dd has been in hospital in the past we bought a couple of books to read with the boys. It's a good few years ago now but I think one was a Topsy and Tim book. If you have a look on Amazon, search 'hospital', then narrow it to children's and the age group there are quite a few. I have one called 'Operation fix-it' from the British Heart Foundation but that is quite specific obviously.

Generally we've made a big fuss about where they'll be going rather than what was happening to dd. My mum used to have them so they had a great time having lots of fuss made of them.