If your child is having anaesthesia or sedation, your anaesthetist or nurse will tell you exactly what time your child needs to stop eating and drinking.
Stopping eating means all food including:
If your baby or child is breastfed, you will receive instructions about the time of the last feed.
The healthcare team will encourage your child to have clear fluid drinks up until closer to the operation. Your local healthcare team will give you instructions about when to stop. Clear drinks include:
Your doctor and other health professionals will share with you and your child all the information and advice you need to make a decision about having a procedure. This is called informed consent.
The ethical basis for the principle of informed consent comes from Right 7 of the Code of Health and Disability Services Consumers' Rights. You can ask for a copy of the Code from your hospital.
When you give consent, your health professional will ask you to sign a consent form. You might just need to give verbal consent for something minor.
All the pages in the childhood cancer section of this website [2] have been written by health professionals who work in the field of paediatric oncology. They have been reviewed by the members of the National Child Cancer Network (NZ). Medical information is authorised by the clinical leader of the National Child Cancer Network.
This page last reviewed 13 May 2021.
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Links
[1] https://kidshealth.org.nz/tags/childhood-cancer-treatments
[2] https://kidshealth.org.nz/tags/childhood-cancer
[3] https://kidshealth.org.nz/node/1525?language=en
[4] https://kidshealth.org.nz/contact?from=http%3A%2F%2Fkidshealth.org.nz%2Fprint%2F464%3Flanguage%3Den