Anesthesia and Your Child

If your child needs to have an operation, you probably have plenty of questions, many of them about anesthesia. You may wonder if your child will feel pain during the operation, be aware of what’s going on, wake up in the middle of the surgery and be scared, or not feel well afterward.

The concept of your child being unconscious or losing sensation in the body can be unnerving, especially when you’re entrusting his or her health and well being to someone else. But anesthesia today is very safe. Unlike anesthesia of the past, when doctors often used nothing more than ether and a stethoscope, modern anesthesia in hospitals and surgery centers is administered by highly trained professionals who use a wide range of safe medications and monitoring equipment.

Whether your child is scheduled for a minor outpatient procedure or major surgery that requires recovery time in the hospital, it’s important for you to be prepared to support your child. The more educated, calm, and reassuring you are about the surgery and the anesthesia, the easier the experience is likely to be for both you and your child.