Category: President’s Blog

Having a Nut Allergy is both a common and serious medical condition. Being a Squirrel with a nut allergy makes for an entertaining yet important educational story for children with and without food allergies. This entertaining animated video teaches about the importance of knowing what is in the food a child with a nut allergy eats every day! Especially valuable for their teachers.

This 2D Animated Story engages the viewer immediately who becomes aware of this difficult problem that our star NUTTY the Squirrel has to overcome somehow if he can!

This animated story about living with nut allergies was written specifically for young viewers. It incorporates catchy songs and visuals that are seamlessly blended with important concepts making retention of them almost automatic! This colorful program with several adorable characters rhythmic music and lyrics along with their fun antics, motivate the young viewers to watch this animated video over and over again and share it with their friends. As with all of our programs, it also includes a “Life lesson” that is revealed as the story plays out to a heartwarming conclusion.

 Sarah was not feeling well. So, her parents made an appointment to see a pediatric doctor at their hospital.  Like most of us, going  somewhere for first time can be frightening especially a huge hospital lobby!  However, as soon as she walked in, Remee, a well dressed talking rabbit hopped up to meet her, and her parent. Remee exclaimed, “No worries Sarah, after taking my tour, the kids all say: I’m not afraid anymore, NO Way!!”

You see, Remee gave private VIP hospital tours so new patients could see for themselves what it looks like and what happens there. Remee the Rabbit invites Sarah, a young child on a special Hospital tour on his Tour Mobile before her appointment date.

This hospital tour gives Sarah and the young viewers taking a virtual tour is an engaging, educational and memorable adventure of what the inside of a  hospital looks like and what goes on there.  Sarah quickly makes new friends with, a nurse, a singing scale and other personified medical instruments that a nurse or doctor uses during a typical examination.

 

Does anyone LIKE getting an injection? Cindy Syringe co-stars in this thought-provoking and entertaining animated program where she asks everyone to start thinking about all the good the medicine inside her does rather than the little Poke and a couple of seconds of ouch!  

So, she tries to convince Poke A Dot and the studio audience to take her off their: 

“We Don’t Like it List”

Each program topic in our series was selected by researching the most common medical issues children are being treated for in the US, along with popular topics recommended by healthcare professionals and parents nationwide.

Topics include: Going to a hospital or clinic for the first time, having an examination, diagnostic tests and treatments. 

Watching children’s interaction with their parents and other young patients in a waiting room would make for a revealing research study or at least a term paper for anyone in the medical field that treats pediatric patients. Some kids are quiet and solemn staring intensely at their iPad or cell phone (yes a cell phone..that’s another study for another day!) While others are in constant motion, picking up and putting down toys, magazines or trying to talk with anyone that will listen. The parents becoming more uncomfortable by the minute try to get their attention by talking in a public kind of whisper voice saying things like “Don’t play with that” ” Come back here and sit down” “Stop bothering that man ” Why don’t you read your book?”

What’s really going on is often the child’s anxiety and fear of the unknown mixed with preconceived feelings of what is about to happen when called into the examination room. Or worse yet, knowing something is about to happen that will not be pleasant! From a needle poke to an explanation of the results of the test that they are there to discuss.

Talking with a child about going to a medical clinic or hospital is often a difficult thing for a concerned parent to discuss. They are already anxious about the upcoming treatment or even more about the outcome of their child’s test results. The parent’s anxiety is quickly picked up by the child adding to their own made-up concerns about being hurt, guilt for doing something wrong, or simply the unknown.

This scenario is commonplace not only in the waiting room but the day or days prior to the actual appointment.

I have spent a better part of two years searching through case studies and articles written about this unfortunate communication gap that is prevalent in the majority of families. It is my ultimate goal to change this paradigm by continuing to produce CAP’s original animated series of easy to understand, non-threatening programs that engage the young viewers (and parents) by using friendly animated characters that they will listen to and learn from. They then are able to share key concepts learned, bridging the communication gap, reducing fear and anxiety of the upcoming appointment and enabling parents & patients to talk about that (not so big anymore) Elephant in the waiting room.

Next post: An important step has been taken!!