Hearing the words “your child has cancer” changes everything in an instant. One moment, you’re living your normal life with school drop-offs, soccer practice, and family dinners.
The next moment, you’re facing hospital stays, treatment plans, and medical terminology you never wanted to learn. As a parent myself, my heart breaks for what you’re going through right now.
This article walks you through practical ways to support your child’s nutrition, emotional well-being, and overall health during this incredibly difficult time.
You’re not alone in this journey, and you’re stronger than you know.
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Understanding Your Child’s Cancer Diagnosis
A cancer diagnosis in childhood turns your entire world upside down. The emotions you’re feeling (shock, denial, anger, guilt, sadness) are completely normal. You might feel like you’re grieving the loss of your child’s “normal” childhood, and that’s okay.
Give yourself permission to feel all of these emotions. One of my clients, a mother of a 7-year-old with leukemia, told me she felt guilty for crying because she thought she needed to stay positive for her daughter. I reminded her that showing real emotions teaches children it’s okay to feel scared sometimes.
During treatment, expect hospital stays, frequent appointments, and changes to your family’s daily routines. Your child’s healthcare team (including pediatric oncologists, nurses, social workers, child-life specialists, and registered dietitians) becomes your support system.
Bring a notebook to appointments and consider having a trusted friend or family member take notes while you focus on being present with your child.
If you’re ready for expert, personalized support, apply here for: VIP 1:1 Pediatric Cancer Nutrition Coaching so you don’t have to second guess everything.
Communicating with Your Child About Cancer
Honesty builds trust, even when the truth is scary. Children sense when something is wrong, and keeping secrets often creates more anxiety than age-appropriate honesty. Tailor your conversations to your child’s developmental stage.
- For infants and toddlers (0-2 years): They won’t understand words, but they feel your emotions. Comfort your baby with gentle touch, familiar items from home, and maintain routines as much as possible.
- For preschoolers (3-5 years): Use simple, concrete language. Explain that they have “sick cells” that doctors are working to fix with special medicine. Reassure them that nothing they did caused the cancer.
- For school-age children (6-12 years): Provide honest, detailed information about their diagnosis and treatment. Encourage questions and answer them truthfully.
- For teenagers (13-18 years): Involve them directly in conversations with doctors. Teens can handle complex medical information but may struggle emotionally. Support their concerns about appearance, missing activities with friends, and maintaining independence.
When children ask difficult questions like “Will I die?”, work with your child’s nurse or child-life specialist on how to respond honestly while providing appropriate reassurance to help you and your child feel most comfortable.
Supporting Your Child’s Emotional and Mental Health
Cancer affects more than just physical health. Watch for signs your child needs extra emotional support: increased anxiety, persistent sadness, withdrawal from activities they once enjoyed, or behavioral changes.
Therapeutic activities help children process difficult emotions. Art therapy, music therapy, and play therapy give kids safe outlets for expressing feelings they can’t put into words.
Simple distraction techniques like video games, favorite movies, and board games help children relax during stressful moments.
One of my VIP 1:1 Cancer Nutrition & LIfestyle Pediatric Coaching clients used art therapy with her 9-year-old son during chemotherapy. He couldn’t talk about his fear, but his drawings showed exactly what he was feeling. This opened conversations they couldn’t have had otherwise.
Maintain normalcy wherever possible. Keep your child connected with school through virtual learning when they can’t attend in person. Allow friends to visit when your child feels up to it and doctors approve. Connection with peers reduces feelings of isolation and helps children remember they’re still kids, not just patients.
Take Control of Your Family’s Health Journey
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Nutrition for Children with Cancer
As your oncology dietitian, I can tell you that good nutrition during cancer treatment is absolutely critical, but it’s also one of the most challenging aspects for parents. Unlike adults who typically maintain weight during treatment, children are supposed to grow. This makes nutrition even more important.
Why Good Nutrition Matters During Treatment
Proper nutrition helps children tolerate chemotherapy or radiation with fewer side effects, maintain their immune system function, have energy for healing, and continue growing. Children with cancer often need more calories per pound than healthy children to provide their bodies with energy to fight cancer and repair damaged tissues. In my programs, I show parents how adequate nutrition helps their child complete treatment at full dose.
Meeting Increased Nutritional Needs
Children with cancer require higher amounts of protein and calories. Protein supports growth and helps the body repair itself. Focus on high-protein foods like eggs, dairy products (milk, yogurt, cheese), peanut butter, lean meats, fish, and legumes.
Work closely with a registered dietitian who specializes in pediatric oncology. They assess your child’s specific nutritional needs, suggest appropriate supplements if needed, and create an individualized plan.
Managing Nutrition-Related Side Effects
Cancer treatment causes numerous side effects that make eating difficult. Here’s how to manage the most common challenges:
- Nausea and vomiting: Offer bland foods like toast, rice, crackers, and clear broths. Serve small, frequent meals instead of three large ones.
- Mouth sores: Provide soft, non-acidic foods like mashed potatoes, yogurt, smoothies, and pudding.
- Taste changes: Experiment with different food temperatures and flavors. Use plastic utensils if your child complains of a metallic taste.
- Poor appetite: Keep snacks readily available like breakfast bars, nutrition shakes, crackers, and fruit. Serve meals on smaller plates so portions don’t seem overwhelming.
- Constipation: Increase fiber gradually through fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. Ensure adequate hydration.
- Diarrhea: Offer easy-to-digest foods like bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast.
Caring for Siblings During Treatment
Brothers and sisters of children with cancer experience their own emotional challenges. They may feel forgotten, confused about what’s happening, scared about their sibling’s health, or even guilty that they’re healthy. Resentment is normal.
Provide age-appropriate explanations about your child’s cancer to siblings. Reassure them repeatedly that they didn’t cause the cancer and can’t catch it. Include them in hospital visits when appropriate and possible. Maintain their normal activities and schedules as much as you can.
Connect siblings with support resources designed specifically for them. Many hospitals offer sibling support groups where they can meet other kids going through similar experiences.
Building Your Support Network
You cannot do this alone. When people offer to help, give them specific tasks: prepare meals, grocery shop, drive other children to activities, clean the house, do laundry, or manage yard work. Many families designate one person as a liaison to coordinate offers of help and communicate updates.
Support groups for parents provide invaluable emotional support and practical advice from people who truly understand what you’re experiencing. Ask your child’s social worker about hospital-based support groups or connect with national organizations that offer online communities.
Taking Care of Yourself as a Parent
You can’t pour from an empty cup. Taking care of yourself isn’t selfish, it’s necessary for being able to care for your child effectively. Parents of children with cancer frequently experience unmet needs, leading to increased stress and depression.
Accept help from others. Take short breaks when possible. Maintain your own medical appointments and healthy habits around nutrition, sleep, and physical activity. Find moments of joy and normalcy for yourself.
Understand your work and financial options. The Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) provides job protection for eligible employees who need time off. Some employers allow working from home or even from the hospital.
Ready to Feel More Confident About Your Family’s Health?
Supporting a child through cancer doesn’t stop when treatment ends. The Clean Scan Plan helps you build lasting habits around food, hydration, movement, sleep, and stress that support long-term health and restore peace of mind for your entire family.
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You’re Doing an Amazing Job
Every child and every family’s journey through cancer is unique. You know your child better than anyone else in the world. You’re showing up to appointments, holding them when they’re scared, advocating for their needs, and making impossibly difficult decisions. That takes incredible strength.
Remember to take care of yourself too. Accept help, express your emotions, and lean on your support network. Together, you and your child will make it through this.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed with questions about your child’s nutrition during treatment, wondering about supplements, struggling to get them to eat, or worried about their growth, I’m here to help.
As a mom and cancer dietitian with over 15 years of experience, I provide specialized VIP 1:1 pediatric cancer nutrition coaching that supports your child’s unique needs. You don’t have to figure this out alone.
References
- https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/coping/caregiver-support/parents
- https://www.cancer.org/cancer/childhood-cancer/for-parents.html
- https://kidshealth.org/en/parents/cancer-nutrition.html
- https://www.stjude.org/research/progress/2025/nutrition-is-key-ingredient-for-defense-against-infectious-diseases-in-kids-with-cancer.html
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3065754/
- https://cancerblog.mayoclinic.org/2024/08/01/supporting-your-childs-development-after-a-cancer-diagnosis/
- https://care.choc.org/advancing-mental-health-aftercare-for-pediatric-cancer-patients/
