How to keep your other children, your partnership, and your family routines standing while one child is in leukemia treatment.
What You Need to Know First
Leukemia treatment is long, often two to three years. Your family will not “get through this and go back to normal.” You will build a new normal, and the people most likely to get lost in the first months are the siblings and your partner. Not because anyone is neglecting them, but because the sick child takes everything you have.
Something that helps: your hospital has people whose job this is. Child life specialists and pediatric social workers work with siblings all the time. They will explain the diagnosis in words a six-year-old can hold, give a tour before the first visit, and prepare a sibling who may be asked to donate bone marrow. You have to ask. Nobody schedules it for you.
Most camps on this page are free and have medical staff on site, and most take siblings, but what “free” covers (travel, deposits, eligibility) varies by camp and by year, so ask about any out-of-pocket costs up front. The catch is timing. Applications open in winter, fill fast, and need a physical from the past year plus a form from the oncology team. Start camp paperwork in January, even if summer feels impossible to imagine.
Couples cope differently. One of you goes practical and one goes quiet. That is not a broken marriage, it is two people grieving in different styles. Your child’s social worker can refer you to couples support; asking is routine.
The programs below focus on New Jersey and New York. Many states have similar programs; your hospital social worker can help you find the closest ones where you live.
Resources — 19 verified links Federal and national (10) · New Jersey (3) · New York (3) · Other states (3)
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