Telling my toddler and child I have breast cancer

Hi Wattlebird3​  - you are right, its such a tough topic to discuss with 'little ones' and the information can be geared more around older children.

It still may be helpful to review BCNA resources specifically for parents navigating breast cancer, especially when it comes to supporting their children. 

Talking to Children About Your Diagnosis

This article provides guidance on how to talk to children of different ages about a breast cancer diagnosis. It includes tips on how to reassure them, explain the illness in age-appropriate ways, and recognise signs of distress in children. Read the article here

I also wanted to share some other excellent Australian support services and resources that may be helpful:

Mummy's Wish

Mummy’s Wish is a wonderful Australian charity that provides practical and emotional support to mothers diagnosed with cancer who have children under the age of 13. They offer many different support and resources, several examples below:

• Voice-recordable Comfort Bears for children to hear mum voice
• Financial assistance for essentials like cleaning, groceries, and fuel
• Counselling and emotional support to help navigate the emotional toll
• Peer support groups

Cancer Council – Talking to Kids About Cancer
A comprehensive guide with practical advice on explaining cancer to children of different ages, including preschool-aged children, and supporting them through treatment and recovery.

Cancer Hub
A free service delivered by Canteen, Camp Quality and Redkite that helps families with children aged 0–25 years access counselling, practical support, information and family-focused services.

Hopefully the above provides something useful to support you during this time. Our Helpline team on 1800 500 258 is always available to tell you more about the above resources.

I'm so sorry you are going through this, and well done on managing all that and two young kids 💪.

My youngest was 7 when I was diagnosed last year, and as it was a fast moving cancer type I was into chemo the week after diagnosis. I realise there's a big difference in our kids ages, but honestly, my 7 year old had no concept of cancer or what all this entailed. I kept it super simple and told him my boob was sick, and the medicine was a special type which will make my hair fall out, make me tired etc. My husband kept reminding the kids that hair falling out meant the medicine was going where it needed to go, and that mum needs to stay away from people if they have a cold etc (that was probably the harder part). To be honest, he didn't ask a stack of questions and it was only after chemo and surgery that he had a few more questions. He knows I've had cancer, but honestly, I've not had a lot of queries (maybe just my kid 🤔)!

I'm wishing you all the very best for your treatment and all the best to your family. Sending you all the strength as you nail chemo (and you will nail it!) x

Thank you for your advice boobvoyage. Thr chat qent really well today with the kids. Im not 100% sure they understood but im sure it will be an ongoing discussion. I used your husbands line around hair loss and the medicine working so hopefully that helps. I also go some other great advice in another group to call it heavy medicine which we did however with time I am sure we will change this to chemo. 

We also printed out a calendar and put it on the wall to help demonstrate to them when I will feel at my worse and when things should start to look better. It was a tough one for them to see how long it would be until chemo finished aslnd my 5yr old struggled with the idea of me being sick for so long. 

We are going to take them wig shopping with us this weekend to help them feel involved in the process. 

Thanks again for your support!