AAP Voices

I'm a third-year pediatric resident with the University of Minnesota Pediatrics Residency Program, and I wanted to share a little children’s book I wrote and illustrated to help comfort kids dealing with social distancing and the emotional effects of the pandemic.

It’s called “Piggy & Bunny and the Stay-At-Home Plan,” and I'm sharing the PDF for free so all families can have access to it.

Sitting at home after a long shift in the pediatric emergency department, I was thinking about all the kids affected by COVID.

My nieces, 3 1/2-year-old Amelia and 7-month-old Sophie, are separated from their dad right now due to the pandemic. A good friend’s daughter, age 7, recently called me over Facetime crying, and told me how much she missed her friends, and how scared she was of this new virus.

I wanted to do something to comfort them, so I decided to send stuffed animals—a pig and a bunny—to each. Then I thought I’d write a poem to go along with it. Pretty soon I was digging some old yellow paper and watercolors out of my desk to make some drawings for the poem, and Piggy and Bunny were born!

The kids all loved it, so I thought I’d share more broadly. It’s been so fun to hear from friends around the country sharing the story with their children, patients, virtual classrooms, homeless shelters, and other families dealing with this crisis.

Parents are among my heroes of this pandemic—balancing job changes, stretched finances, childcare, homeschooling and more. I’m so inspired by the families I work with, now more than ever.

Send in your COVID-19 pandemic story, and we may share it here and on our social media channels. https://bit.ly/2XVvJIu