Promoting the young child's development in the intensive care unit

Young children are much more emotionally vulnerable to hospitalization than are adults. The admission of a child to an intensive care unit (ICU) is stress-producing and can affect the child's ability to develop at an optimal level. This article provides the ICU nurse with a working knowledge of normal growth and developmental patterns of infants and toddlers. Internal strengths of the child, external supports, and environmental manipulation that the nurse can use to promote the critically ill child's growth and development and support the child in coping with hospitalization are presented. Discussion centers on the child experiencing an acute crisis that requires long-term intensive monitoring, rather than on the chronically ill child.