My grandbaby is in the hospital. (Yes, my young looking self is a grandmother!) I was there all day with him yesterday. His mother (my daughter in law) has been with him day and night since he went in last week. Her mother has been with him. Her friends have been with him. Baby TJ has not been alone for a minute.
He has been diagnosed with Kawasaki disease. You’ll have to google that but we are thankful for the amazing children’s hospital that figured that out and are treating him.
My post is not actually about TJ but it is about the tiny baby bear in the bed beside him. He was a preemie and has some lung issues. And he is alone.
Less than two months old and alone.
There is no one holding and cuddling him and soothing him as our sweet grandson has. The contrast between the care is disturbing.
The nurses are not daycare providers. They are busy caring for the hundreds of kids in the hospital. The parents pop in for an hour or two each day and leave. He cries and they are not there to soothe him. I pressed our call button so the nurses would come and we would point to the other side of the room.
There are volunteers who do their best to go around and give parents a break so they can go to the bathroom or go eat in the cafeteria but that is minutes a day out of the 24 hours.
I talked with a few of the nurses and they were just as upset about it as I am. They do their best to take him whenever they get a lull in their work and go hold him and change him. Don’t get me wrong they feed him every three hours but he cries starting at the two hour mark for the entire hour until he is fed. He most likely was eating every two hours at home. Can you imagine what his brain is thinking while he lays there crying an no one responds? His brain is connecting dots every minute and he is connecting that there is no point to cry as no one will answer anyways.
I have had children in hospital many times especially my two Cystic Fibrosis kiddos. If I am not there with them, I make sure someone else is; family, friends, neighbours. There must be someone in those parents life who can stay with the baby. (And no the mother doesn’t work so they are not leaving for that reason. Plus it was Sunday)
I hope that by shining light on this issue people will spread the word that Hospitals are not daycares and if your baby or child gets admitted you need to make sure that at least during the day someone is there with them. Please spread the word!
NOTE: This does not apply for NICU or PICU or any ICU ward where there is one to one care with a nurse watching your baby at all times.
Have you ever stayed in hospital with your child and seen a similar scenario? Comment below!
SDG
Adelle On Fire 
This has been happening for just far too long…14 yrs ago, we just had our 8th child. He came in a hurry so his lungs weren’t quite ready for the big outside world. He was having some issues with mucus so Dr Pademadden sent us to BGH. We were admitted to the peds floor for the night. Colby was in a room with another little guy. Lets call him Ethan. He was in for unknown reasons but he looked to be about 3 months old. We got to hospital about 3pm. He was there alone. We were there until 930 am the next day, he was alone. And he cried. I asked the nurses if I could help with him. Colby was hooked to monitors so when he slept, I held and rocked and fed and sang to Ethan. It broke my heart that he was there that whole time….alone. No Mommy there to make sure he was being fed or changed or held. I felt the same as you….was there NOBODY who could have been there with him? Just so sad
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