For small children, the prospect of hospitalization can be frightening. Televised images that they've seen of medical examinations, test procedures involving gigantic pieces of equipment, and operating rooms staffed by masked surgeons cloaked head to toe in medical scrub uniforms can compound their fear.

The Child Life Program at UC Davis Medical Center has a staff of specialists who are experts in minimizing the trauma and anxiety of hospitalization and strengthening the coping skills of hospitalized kids. Using therapeutic techniques, they calm, distract and encourage young patients, engaging them in fun activities that give them respite from their medical regimen.

A session with a certified child life specialist and a “medical play” puppet wearing an arm sling similar to the patient, can soothe a small child and help prepare him for upcoming orthopedic surgery. Discomfort of a youngster who is receiving medication intravenously can be greatly alleviated by the distraction of playing games with a cheerful volunteer. Imaginary adventures guided by the encouragement of a child life specialist can divert the attention of a child whose surgical wound dressing is being changed.

The certified child life specialists who serve as trusted advocates for children personify UC Davis Children's Hospital as a place in which young patients are tenderly helped and healed. Child life specialists have a different focus than doctors and nurses. Their focus is on helping children and their families cope with what they experience in the hospital environment. The Child Life Program also includes an art therapist, music therapist, school teachers, playroom coordinator and many volunteers. Child life services are available to all pediatric patients hospitalized at UC Davis Children's Hospital, including children in the general pediatric unit, pediatric intensive care and special care units, metabolic transplant unit, bone marrow transplant unit, the trauma unit and other areas of the hospital.

The Child Life Program welcomes donations of gifts, art supplies, toys and gift cards. Due to infection control standards, only new toys and games are accepted.