1. They will give you “gas” - To children, gas is something that we put in cars or a rude substance that comes from one’s bottom.
2. “Anesthetize” - This word sounds like euthanize and can cause problems if your child knows the word euthanize, searches the internet or hears the word euthanize used in another setting.
3. They will give you medicine to “knock you out” - To most people, being knocked out means being hit hard enough to be rendered unconscious.
4. “The doctor is going to make you take a nap” or “It’s just like bedtime” - Try to avoid confusing surgery with a normal daily ritual at home. If your child is afraid of surgery, they could become afraid of naps at home. It could also lead to fears of waking prior to the end of surgery.
5. “You will be put to sleep” - Many children are aware that when we put animals to sleep they die and may assume they too will die.
6. “You won’t wake up” - It is important to stress that they will sleep through the surgery without feeling pain, but that they will wake after surgery is completed. Children fear both never waking and waking during the procedure.
7. “Be a big boy and don’t cry” - Children need to be encouraged to talk about their fears prior to surgery and their pain after surgery. Surgery is scary and children need to be encouraged to discuss their fears so they can be discussed and alleviated.
8. “It is just like on TV” - Surgery isn’t like the surgeries on TV, where actors jump on top of patients and perform CPR and patients die after the less than successful heroics of the fictional staff.
