Balancing Life as a Medically Fragile Family

As a parent of a medically fragile child, life responsibilities can be increased with an added layer of things to think about throughout the day. But how do you stay organized with medically fragile children and non-medically fragile children?

Though this answer is complex and will depend on every family’s special and unique needs, Team Select offers advice to parents who are managing it all and how to improve organization.

Write it down

“If you write something by hand, all that complex sensory information increases the chances the knowledge will be stored for later. In short, writing by hand forces your brain to process information in a more detailed way, which helps you successfully load that information into your memory.” – livesavvy

Writing down feeding times, appointments, practice, helps not only you – but your partner or community of support. Some families find it useful keeping a running calendar and list of to-dos on the fridge and in a communal space.

Create a grab bag

Organizing medical supplies as a parent of a medically fragile child can be time consuming, but by creating a grab bag, each member of the family can assist with grabbing items from the grab bag, or the entire bag, when leaving home.

By letting all members of the family know where the grab bag is, you are promoting an inclusive, family-unit where every member of the family feels educated and supported to helping one another.

Schedule time to spend with each member of the family

In a family balancing different dynamics, it’s important to spend quality time with each member. It is no secret that as a parent of a medically fragile child, you may spend additional time ensuring safety and wellbeing because these children require additional care. This can oftentimes leave non-medically fragile children feeling left out. Creating scheduled time to do their favorite activity, watch a movie, or go to the park can make non-medically fragile children feel included and special.

Explore Pinterest

Staying organized with multiple children in the home can be overwhelming. Especially, trying to stay organized with medically fragile children.

“Where do I start?”

“How do I label or separate medical and non-medical items but make them accessible for myself and other caregivers?”

Though we do not have a “one size fits all” solution, Pinterest is an amazing platform for families searching for inspiration. From label making ideas and color coating categorization to on the budget shelving – Pinterest is here to stay…and help!

Having a pristine organization station can reduce stress and be more time efficient. Leaving you more time to do extra-curricular activities with the entire family.

Helpful resources to staying organized:

Activities in small bursts

With many tasks to manage, completing tasks or taking a break to fold laundry in small amounts of time can lead to more success and a healthier, more balanced environment. The University of Georgia released a short article on how to break large tasks down into smaller, more manageable pieces.

For example,

If every Monday and Wednesday you must complete laundry and drop off your non-medically fragile children at soccer practice, you can complete laundry in 20-minute time frames throughout the day to make completing the task more obtainable and pleasurable with balancing all other tasks. This allows for more time throughout the day completing other important tasks like dropping off the kids to soccer practice and coming home to only 25% of the laundry left to do.

“Breaking tasks down helps us to see large tasks as more approachable and doable, and reduces our propensity to procrastinate or defer tasks, because we simply don’t know where to begin,” explains Melissa Gratias, Ph.D., a workplace productivity coach and speaker. – What’s Microproductivity? The Small Habit That Will Lead You To Big Wins

As a parent of a medically fragile child, in select states, you have the opportunity to be compensated to be the sole caregiver for your child, through a home health agency. For further information on if the Family CNA Program is available in your state, please view our Family CNA Page.