What is every day life like with a child who has HIV?
Life with a child who has HIV is pretty much the same as life with any other child.
The only real differences are:
- meds once or twice a day
- quarterly blood draw and visit with infectious disease specialist
Most parents find that it doesn't take very long before they actually start to forget that their child has an 'issue' at all! Their kids are laughing and playing, singing, dancing and LIVING LIFE like any other child and their HIV status is a very small part of their lives.
What are the differences between parenting a child with HIV vs. without?
"My daughter takes 8 pills a day...that's different from her sibs. She also goes to the PID regularly. (Pediatric Infefectious Disease specialist) I have 5 other kids, some of my kids have ongoing ear issues and they see the ENT more frequently than Lil Miss sees the PID." -Deb in New England
"The main difference in parenting our positive princess vs. a negative child is that she takes medicine twice a day and goes to see her specialist 4 times a year. -- I don't worry any more about her than I would my other kids when she scrapes her knee. [I don't want to touch anybody's blood!]" -Anita in OK
"The only real differences between our positive & negative kids are quarterly doc visits and meds twice a day. No big deal." -Chantelle
"I think daily life with HIV is not much different for my daughter. The most significant difference is taking medicine twice daily. Everyone in the house is aware of the time at 8am and 8pm. At those times someone usually shouts out, "did Dasha get her meds?" Other than that, HIV is not much of a presence in our home." -Traci