5 tips for helping a family with a health crisis

Know a family experiencing a health crisis? Do they have young kids? When our daughter was diagnosed with cancer, our family was blessed with an abundance of help from friends. This support got us through a very difficult time. From our experience, here are some small but impactful ways to help:

1. Strive for Healthy Choices
   If you are making a meal, consider including healthy choices. Families with medical issues eat a lot of meals on the go, and often need to choose convenience over healthier choices. Sweets are a treat, but cut up fresh fruit or pre-made veggie trays are great alternatives. It’s easy to make healthy choices when easy to serve, nutritious foods are available.
2. Easy Foods
   Try to give meals that can be easily heated or reheated. Unexpected hospital stays and long doctor appointments make for unpredictable meal times. Chili, sauces, pasta dishes, casseroles or tacos can be easily served any time of day.
3. Disposable containers
   Use disposable containers whenever possible. If you need your serving dish back, ask the family to leave it on the porch and offer to pick it up.
4. Themed support
   Help the family with a specific event. A bag of groceries filled with kids lunch items, juice boxes, crackers, fruit snacks, or individual snacks provides a big boost with school lunches. A hospital/doctor day bag filled with nutrition bars, gum, trail mix, or coffee gift cards can revitalize a hard day.
5. Sibling support
   Offer to transport siblings to activities. Specific and timed offers are most helpful, think “I’ll get Emma to and from band every Wednesday in October.”

There are so many things to manage when your child is sick. Help from friends can make a real difference for families facing the upheaval of a health crisis.

Amy Graver is a happy wife and mom of four. She blogs about parenting and the journey on which cancer has taken her family. Her daughter Lauren was diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare muscle-based cancer, just before starting second grade. Lauren is a patient at Advocate Children’s Hospital.