Procedure Preparation Targeted Toolkit

Ages 0 - 24+ Years

Parents often wonder how they can prepare their child with a congenital heart defect (CHD) for a medical procedure or hospital stay. The resources in this toolkit can help families feel confident in their own ability to prepare their child, and can also direct families to the many professionals available to help them.

A mother with a blue shirt sits next to her daughter, who has a congenital heart defect (CHD), and talks about her open heart surgery.

Preparing kids for a procedure

This video teaches practical strategies that adults can use to prepare a child for a medical procedure such as a heart surgery, catheterization, or inpatient stay.

A partly-packed suitcase sits on a bed, ready for a child with a congenital heart defect (CHD) to go to a hospital for an open-heart surgery.

Preparing your family for the hospital

This article and the attached resources guide families in preparing for a hospital stay, including both practical preparation and emotional preparation.

A father with a green shirt sits on a couch with his young daughter, who has curly black hair and a congenital heart defect (CHD), and shows her a picture on his phone.

Preparing your child for the hospital

This resource leads parents through the process of preparing a child for a hospital admission, and includes links to numerous helpful tools.

A mother and daughter with a congenital heart defect touch foreheads while both wearing masks.

Sharing a diagnosis

Parents often dread explaining a diagnosis to a child. This guide helps parents through the process, and can help bring the whole family to a place of better mutual understanding.

A little girl with a congenital heart defect (CHD) sits in between her parents on a couch, and listens to her father's heart with a stethoscope.

Medical anxiety

Children with congenital heart defects (CHDs) often develop anxiety surrounding medical care. This video explains how to help them to feel calmer and safer.

A father in a gray shirt spoon feeds a baby in a yellow shirt with a congenital heart defect (CHD).

Parent mental health

Parenting a child with a chronic illness can be stressful, or even overwhelming. When parents manage their own mental health well, they are better able to be present and engaged for their children.

A little girl with a congenital heart defect (CHD) sits in a hospital bed after an open heart surgery (OHS), playing a game with a nurse.

Keeping kids engaged during hospitalizations

This resource helps families and providers to plan for a child's hospitalization, and to make sure the child is able to remain as interested and busy as possible.

Four hands make the letters of the word "love" in front of the ocean.

Your support network

Before a child's medical procedure, families can work to build a social support network to share and lessen the burden. These resources make that process easier.

A mother holds her baby who has a congenital heart defect (CHD) skin-to-skin against her chest, under a blue blanket, in the cardiac intensive care unit (CICU)

Virtual tour of a cardiac intensive care unit (CICU)

This video shows families what they will see and experience in a cardiac intensive care unit (CICU).

The front door of Boston Children's Hospital.

Virtual tour of a cardiology hospital room

This video brings viewers on a virtual tour of a cardiology floor at Boston Children's Hospital, and shows them what an inpatient room looks like.

A girl with a congenital heart defect (CHD) and black curly hair wears a gray jumpsuit and blows bubbles on a paved path, while her father leans over her.

Shots and other pokes

Many children are afraid of the needles involved in healthcare. This video helps caregivers to reduce children's fear, and to help them to manage shots, blood draws, and IVs more calmly.

A father cradles his little boy, who has a congenital heart defect (CHD), while a doctor gives him an injection in his leg.

Comfort positions

This resource teaches comfort positions, which are ways of holding a child during medical treatment to help them feel safe and calm.