“NICU admission doesn’t just affect the baby; it affects the entire family: siblings, parents, grandparents, everyone feels that,” one nurse shared
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Published on June 8, 2026 11:57AM EDT
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NEED TO KNOW
- Four NICU nurses at Connecticut Children’s created a children’s book to help siblings understand their baby sibling’s hospital stay
- The book includes interactive features like coloring pages and spaces for kids to write notes for their siblings in the NICU
- The nurses were inspired by a family whose older children had questions after their baby sibling was admitted to the NICU
A group of Connecticut nurses is hoping not only to help parents with babies in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), but also to find a way to help their other little ones at home understand the process.
Four NICU nurses at Connecticut Children’s in Farmington wrote and helped to illustrate a children’s book titled A Message to My Sibling, which aims to help children at home understand why their parents are spending so much time at the hospital when they have a baby in the NICU.
According to WTNH, the group of nurses, who worked with illustrator Cheri Lenhow, first came up with the idea after a baby named Anna was admitted to the NICU after she was born at 31 weeks and weighed 2 lbs. 13 oz.
The NICU nurses’ book idea quickly sparked after Anna’s older siblings were left with questions about what was happening at the hospital.
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“It was really about introducing these things without scaring them, because it can be scary to see this equipment,” Lenhow explained to the outlet, referring to the different machines used in the hospital, such as the continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine.
The book is interactive and features an area for older kids to write notes to their siblings in the hospital, as well as pages to color and information on the devices used in the NICU.
“We included pages where they can draw pics of themselves, or things that they enjoy, and they can hang them up on the walls of the NICU,” Lenhow told the outlet.
Kelsey MarcAurele, one of the nurses who worked on the book, noted that when a baby is in the NICU, it affects more than just the baby and their parents.
“NICU admission doesn’t just affect the baby; it affects the entire family: siblings, parents, grandparents, everyone feels that,” she added.
