The hospital of our soft toys at IGR - 15 sept. 2021

Radiotherapy sessions represent a source of anxiety for many children: they cannot be accompanied in the room, must remain motionless, are sometimes contained by a thermoformed mask ... For these reasons, the medical team sometimes does not have other solution than to practice sedation or even general anesthesia, so that radiotherapy can be performed. This experience can leave traces in the psyche of these sick children, a very important stress for their parents and siblings, too.

This is why Dr Clémentine Lopez, MD-PhD, child psychiatrist at the Gustave Roussy Institute, imagined an improvement in the preparation of these small patients. The project firstly provides for each child to benefit from a psychoeducational session prior to treatment. The plush mascot "Toudou" will be offered to each of these children, with their little health book, in which a "tampon" is applied to each visit to radiotherapy. It will serve as a transitional object, a reassuring blanket that the child will be invited to treat. He will be able to practice practicing on his soft toy gestures with which he will become familiar, in a dedicated space: putting on a small thermoformed mask, laying down his soft toy on the examination table and on a mini radiotherapy device ...

Once the children are prepared, they will once again be in contact with "Toudou" in a waiting room tailored to them, designed as a mini-hospital. This space, the “Hôpital de mon Doudou”, will be located near the room where the children will be received to make their thermoformed masks. Their waiting time will be "brightened up" by these fun and educational facilities.

In addition to greater psychological well-being of children throughout their treatment, we hope that this device will help to facilitate the use of sedations or anesthesia, or that it may even be able to avoid them. Its impact will be the subject of a scientific study led by the staff of the Gustave Roussy Institute.