Three year old affected by hospital stay?

[Mrsasck]

Hi, anyone with any experience of a 3yo struggling to get back to normal after a hospital stay? We were in for 5 days in total and she had some very stressful moments (cannula attempts x THREE) which made her distrustful of docs to begin with, but by the end she'd made friends across with board. However, at home she's wetting the bed, not eating well, waking consistently at 4am crying for attention and really struggling to get back to sleep, not wanting to go to nursery any more, generally crying about everything and nothing, refusing to talk to us at times ... we've lost our confident daughter and it's just awful. How many weeks post-hospital should we expect this to last? It's been three weeks so far...

No experience I'm afraid, but could it be hte after-effects of whatever caused her to be in hospital, rather than the stay itself? Sometimes if you've been really poorly, it can take a while to get back to feeling yourself, even if you are technically over whatever the illness was. If she is feeling really low and tired, it could cause this behaviour.

How long ago was she ill? I find that mine are always off for about 2-3 weeks after a bad illness. All the things you describe would be the case with mine, after a hospital stay or not (well, except for bedwetting, because none of mine are dry at night - 3 is quite young still for being out of night nappies, so she may have just regressed a bit, which is normal after illness). I would just give it some time. Extra cuddles and easy food she likes and ease back into normal for a few more weeks.

How long ago was it? It normally takes an adult 6 weeks to progress a stressful event. Have you checked it’s not a uti?

I bought my DD a doctors kit after she had been in hospital and she wanted the cannula episode of get well soon hospital from ceebies on repeat.

Hiya. My son was in hospital in march for 4 days. Got the canula in on the 5th attempt. He also had some traumatic experiences and i had to leave him over night (his dad stayed) he's never slept in his cot since and had night Terrors for 6 weeks. He's ok now though apart from in my bed every night.

He was 14 months old when it happened. I hope your little one gets back to normal soon. It's a huge thing to of gone through xx

@seeline you're probably right, she's always been (over!) confident so it's such a shock for us to see her like this for so long. Thanks for replying!

@mindutopia it was 4 weeks ago yesterday so I suppose still relatively recently. And yes, we are definitely doing a bit more appeasement to help. The great news is that Frozen 2 is out soon so she'll have new songs to practice & will provide a distraction for her!

@selfsettlingat3 four weeks ago yesterday. I don't know the cannula episode? Will have to give it a go. The nurses were amazing - I'd been on a work trip to HK and picked up a doctor bag earlier this year which we to the hosp and the nurses gave her some bandages for the bag!

vimeo.com/263863584

Here it is!

@Allthecake89
Thank you so much for your reply. I'm sorry you went through it all, and of course your son! But grateful you shared as it's reassuring. Hope you continue with a happy healthy family!