The chronically ill child and recurring family grief.

Chronically ill children and their families are increasingly seen in health care practices as the incidence of infant mortality and formerly fatal childhood diseases has decreased. These children present special challenges to the physician's perceived role as healer. Unlike the sequenced predictable stages of grief that families go through in facing terminal illness, the grief experienced by parents of the chronically ill is recurrent and cyclical. The physician who understands and can anticipate the causes and nature of this grief will be subject to less frustration in treating these children and their families and will be able to offer them more effective care.