Is It Okay To Bring A Stuffed Plushie To A Hospital?
Remember how scary thunderstorms used to be as a kid? Heck, maybe you still have a plushie toy as your bestie, or perhaps your kiddos do. You’d hear a bang of lighting, clutch your favorite stuffy for dear life and hide under the duvet.
Thing is, you were probably in the comfort of your home, in your own familiar bed, with your parents just a few feet away in the next room if you needed to call in the big dogs to ease your nerves.
Now picture being in a hospital room, braving an illness you don’t fully understand no matter how many times they’ve explained what modulators or radiation means, and having to fall asleep after being poked, prodded, and overstimulated by all the annoying beeping and buzzing of the hospital.
The hospital atmosphere can be anxiety-inducing if you’re there preparing for a big surgery or procedure. It can even be stressful if you’re just visiting a loved one in the hospital. Adults and children can experience hospital anxiety because they feel physically and emotionally vulnerable. You might even have an extreme fear of hospitals or nosocomephobia.
Having a stuffed sidekick at your side can help you face your biggest fears and can ease this anxiety. Our Blood Drop plush is a great reminder that all that pinching and poking is to help you feel better in the long run.
Plushies have also historically been used to support the sternums of patients who have undergone chest and abdominal surgeries to help keep prevent infection and relieve pain at the incision site. While the usefulness of cough pillows doesn’t have a ton of scientific evidence that says they help medically, their emotional support powers are undeniable.
Hospitals can also be cold and sterile, which is one of the reasons why we made our anatomy toys in the first place! You may want to opt in for some extra coziness and cuteness by bringing along your Kidney Slippers.
The comfort of plush toys can be beneficial to a patient of any age. For the kiddos, it can alleviate stress, make them feel more in control of their bodies, and can turn their struggle into a snuggle. Not only is it ok to bring a stuffed plushie to the hospital, but I Heart Guts encourages it!
For grownups, plushies can be used by researchers to better understand illnesses in adults, as well as to create and enhance treatment programs for the elderly, so even Grandma Fannie isn’t too old for a plushie.
But most of all, if you ever feel lonely, plush toys can be great placeholders for warm hugs when you have to wait for the real deal. And in a hospital, that can sometimes be a painfully long wait. Hug (or punch) your way to health with I Heart Guts plush organs.
For doctors and nurses, healing the patient is their number one priority, which means educating patients about what’s making them sick. So, whether you’re a kid or an adult who responds to bright colors, having a visual aid—like our Intestine + Appendix Plush that shows you the location of two distinct organs—is super helpful for learning how your body works when you’re in the hospital.
A word to the wise, however: stuffies, while super cuddly and soft, can be a little tricky to properly disinfect. So if you have an immunocompromised patient in your life, you’re going to want to reserve the snuggling for when they’re back at home.
Organ stuffed animals can also bring LOLs to the hospital room before and after a procedure. Have you seen the little cute mischievous face on our Guts?! Not only do they help us laugh through the tough times, but they also remind us not to lose our head–figuratively speaking, of course! The anxiety we feel at the hospital happens in our brain, and our Brain Plush is a great reminder that we can choose to think happy thoughts and put a smile on our faces.
Our best-selling organ plushies have been a huge hit with Guts lovers. Here’s what one customer said in a testimonial about our bladder plush: "My father-in-law just began treatment for bladder cancer. He lives in a different state so there isn't much support we can offer but wanted to show him that we were thinking of him. We had the adorable little stuffed bladder sent with a card that said 'Urine Our Thoughts'. It was a HUGE hit. The family cried from laughing so hard. My father-in-law now takes his bladder, named Bob, to the hospital for weekly treatments." The proof’s in the plushie!
Related Posts
Plush Organs Sale 2024!
Cute & Funny Gifts for Surgery 2024
Leave a comment