25 Items for a CHD Hospital Care Package for Parents
Parents gazing over their newborn baby in a hospital bassinet seems like a perfectly normal, typical scenario. Parents wide-eyed in fear looking over their newborn baby covered in wires and tubes in the cardiac intensive care unit…not so normal or typical.
Yet this was our reality and is the reality for many parents of children born with critical Congenital Heart Defects. What do you do for your family member or friend in this situation?
In this post, we’ll go over ideas for a hospital care package for parents with babies in the hospital for special medical needs.
Parents living this trying reality with their baby can really use a pick me up. They need support and comfort and to know others are thinking about them.
Creating a care package for a mom with a baby in the hospital for heart surgery or other intensive medical reasons is a sweet way to offer support.
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Our Hospital Stays
At 27 hours postpartum, I stepped into a second hospital after my newborn daughter was taken there by ambulance.
My daughter’s first hospital stay or I guess second if you count her birth hospital, lasted a month and included an open-heart surgery and 2.5 weeks in the ICU.
Thereafter we cared for her diligently at home, attempting to shield her from anything that might further compromise her fragile health.
Nevertheless, we had to return to the hospital a few times, sometimes planned visits for tests and procedures, and other times unplanned emergencies. Luckily we mostly kept her out of the hospital and at home with us.
When she was 6 months old, we flew across the country to bring her to Boston for her second open heart surgery. We were there for 3 weeks, and inpatient for 9 days.
The Reality of Hospital Life
Living in the hospital is a strange reality. It’s cold and comforting. It’s sterile and full of germs. It’s monotonous and overwhelming. Living in the hospital is an all-consuming challenging contradiction of chaos.
Being in the hospital as a spectator, watching and waiting for your baby to recover from surgery is a wild experience. It can do a number on your mental health, physical being, and spiritual soul.
Reality for parents living in the hospital by their baby’s bedside may look like only have a thin curtain to draw for privacy across a tiny back portion of their baby’s room. Shared bathroom and laundry facilities. An uncomfortable hospital cot smaller than a twin bed. Mediocre meals in the hospital cafeteria.
Emotionally draining days that blur together. Long days of watching their baby struggle and feeling powerless to help. Taking in tons of new medical information. Learning new specialty care needs and perhaps learning about feeding tubes. Trying to celebrate milestones or holidays in the hospital. Splitting themselves between hospital life and their outside life.
Taking care of themselves often takes a back seat.
Creating a Comforting Hospital Care Package for Heart Parents
Parents of heart warrior babies with Critical Congenital Heart Defects become familiar with hospital life early. These CHD babies have higher care needs in their first year of life, often requiring significant heart procedures and surgeries.
Along with this comes hospital stays. Some might be quick, and others can be quite lengthy.
Parents living this reality need support. There are several ways to help support parents when their baby needs open heart surgery or is in the hospital. One of the ways is to send them a hospital care package. They could use a little extra care and comfort.
If you know a heart mom or heart dad with a baby in the hospital, use this list for ideas to create a comforting hospital care package for parents.
This isn’t a checklist, don’t feel the need to gather all of these items. Pick and choose whatever you are able to provide and think about what the parents will appreciate or need the most.
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Essential Items
Parents must make their child’s room their temporary home and always wearing shoes can be uncomfortable. Hospitals are often kept cold, gift them some soft comfy socks or even slippers for mom or dad to keep them warm and comfortable.
After our first night in our daughter’s ICU room, we popped over to the grocery store in search of warm blankets. The room was freezing at night. During the day we also used blankets for extra comfort when sitting in the recliner waiting and watching.
Help the parents stay hydrated. The hospital should offer filtered water and sometimes disposable cups, but it’s better to bring a reusable water bottle to fill up and keep it in your room for more regular drinking.
Include a notebook and a pen so medical parents can write down their questions and thoughts for doctors, take notes during rounds, and keep track of important details.
Having a critically ill baby in the CICU (or NICU or PICU) means endless hand washing and hand sanitizing which can quickly dry out your hands. Give them some extra strength hand moisturizer to help combat the drying effect.
Hospitals can feel very dry. My lips were frequently chapped and I needed extra chapstick, and all the moisturizers to help.
Energizing Items
- Healthy Snacks and Special Treats
Provide heart parents with some extra nutrition support. Consider adding protein bars, dried fruit, nuts, popcorn, and other healthy snacks to keep them going. Throw in some special treats too!
To allow them to nurse their coffee or tea at leisure, in their room, or on a walk, consider adding a travel mug to their care package.
When your baby is in critical care, it’s easy to get wrapped up in all of their care needs and ignore your own. Add a personal care kit for mom or a toiletry kit for dad to help them take care of their basic needs. Or, purchase some of their favorite products if you know their brand preferences.
- Small Plant or Flower
Purchase a small plant or flower to help brighten up their hospital room. While parents are unable to exclusively care for their heart warriors in the hospital, tending to something else, even a plant, can offer a little positive boost of purpose. Find something local and live. Or, if something lower maintenance is preferred, faux plants can still add a cute decorative effect without the caretaking needs.
Entertainment Items
Outlets may be inconvenient, so having a long charging cord is essential. Consider this special multi-charging cable to allow parents to charge various devices, or multiple phones, with different port types. This charging cord even includes connectors to charge an Apple Watch and AirPods.
After so many days in the hospital, having to switch outlets to get out of the way or for other equipment, we ended up breaking several phone cords. So we needed multiple backups to get through our hospital stay.
For further convenience, consider gifting a portable charger for on-the-go charging needs.
Headphones or earbuds allow parents a little escape from their current challenging reality. Gift them AirPods or other earbuds so they can minimize the hospital beeps and instead listen to soothing music, a funny podcast, or their favorite beats to get through the tough hospital days.
Add a Kindle to their care package so they can read while waiting or while their baby is sleeping.
If you know their genre preference, consider adding a book for them to read.
This won’t be the case for everyone, but I’m adding a personal anecdote for consideration. While we were in the trenches of my daughter’s first year, my capacity for consuming anything intense, dramatic, scary, or sad plummeted. I only wanted to read and watch very light-hearted things.
Give parents a children’s book to read to their baby in the hospital.
When you have a baby in the ICU, their care needs are taken over by nurses and other medical providers. It’s strange as a parent, and sometimes you feel helpless about what to do and how you can contribute to your child’s care. Reading to your baby is always a good idea, even as a newborn and even if they’re sedated.
CHD books for kids can be great as they get a little bit older to help them understand their Congenital Heart Disease and medical needs.
Emotional Support Items
A small relevant token, like a pocket hug or small crystal worry stones, may offer a heart mom a little light and comfort.
While in the hospital for Christmas, they gave me a letter and a small pink heart stone. It was so simple, but it meant so much. I still have that little heart.
Sometimes, simply, a note offering your support is the most special gift a friend can receive. Consider comforting words to say to a heart warrior mom.
Being the parent of a medically complex baby is not something most are prepared for. It takes a whole lot of extra strength, learning, and rebuilding of confidence. Give them a little booster with this positive affirmation deck.
Print out a couple of photos and include a frame. Hospital rooms aren’t often cheerful. Gifting a framed photo of their other children or pets they’re currently away from, or other family members and friends might make them smile.
Exciting Items
Help your heart mom friend raise CHD awareness in support of her heart warrior and stay cozy with a custom CHD sweatshirt.
Don’t forget dad, gift him a heart dad shirt to show his pride.
Hospital cafeteria food gets old quickly, and sometimes the hours don’t align when you have a break. Gift a DoorDash, Uber Eats, or Grubhub card to provide parents with a meal.
There are endless expenses when you have a baby that needs significant medical care. Include a Visa gift card for parents to help offset some of the open heart surgery and associated costs. This could help them with gas, parking fees, groceries, and other expenses.
25. What to put it all in
If you want to give a little extra, consider a special container, basket, or bag to hold all your hospital care package items. Think about bags or containers they could use at the hospital and at home.
We were frequently between different spaces from the hospital to the hotel to Ronald McDonald House and other places. Trying to carry things like laptops, chargers, books, pumping supplies, water bottles, etc. between these spaces was impractical with arms alone or even my regular purse. Having a backpack quickly became necessary and more convenient.
Another great option for being able to tote their belongings around, you could gather your gift in a reusable tote bag.
To help them organize their stuff a bit in their temporary home, consider providing a basket or bin with handles along with their care package. We schlepped so many of our things between different hospital rooms using several plastic bags. It would have been nice to have a bin with our most frequently needed items out and organized for easier access.
If mom is pumping, a cooler bag could be a uniquely useful gift bag option. This could hold all the care package items and later could be used to transfer pumped milk between the hospital and home and work and appointments, etc.
Practical Information
Parents in the hospital with their babies typically have a very small amount of space for their things. Keep this in mind as you prepare your care package and make sure it’s not too large.
Think about what they’ll use in the hospital directly and prioritize these items. If you want to provide them with a gift that is better suited for home, send it to their house rather than the hospital.
You should be able to send or deliver your gift basket to your friends in the hospital. The front desk or other staff members can help coordinate.
Final Thoughts
Parents enduring long hospital stays with their medically complex heart babies are going through a lot. They might even have to head to the hospital with their baby unexpectedly in an emergency, which wouldn’t allow them time to prepare everything they need.
If you’re trying to be a supportive friend, putting together a hospital care package can offer helpful comfort.
Use this post for hospital care package ideas for parents with a baby in the hospital. Gather some essential and energizing items as well as a few entertaining and exciting items to help them pass the time in the hospital.
This thoughtful gesture will be appreciated.
