Coping with feelings: seriously ill children, their families, and hospital staff.

Leukemia, aplastic anemia, sickle cell anemia, hemophilia, lymphoma, neuroblastoma, rhabdomyosarcoma, renal failure, cystic fibrosis, scoliosis, diabetes, and asthma. These are only a few of the many chronic diseases or handicapping conditions confronting children today. Little attention has been paid to children's emotional reactions to illness and hospitalization, important facets of the healing process. In the first part of this paper, children's characteristic emotional reactions to hospitalization are discussed within a developmental framework. Next, some of the emotional reactions elicited in hospital staff and parents by seriously ill children are discussed. It is hoped that an elucidation of the types of feelings hospitalized children experience, and the kinds of emotional responses they elicit in adult caretakers, can lead to more sensitive and effective child care-giving in hospital settings.