How do parents talk to their kids about the flooding in Central Texas?

First, allow the child to approach you and see what type of questions they have. Let them speak freely and stick to age-appropriate facts, while also validating their emotions or what they might be expressing.

You do not want to give them too much information or detail because they may become more overwhelmed, stressed, and anxious about the situation.

How do you make your child feel comfortable approaching you with their concerns and emotions?

We always want the child to approach us without us putting our perspective into the situation. I would try sitting at the table together, bringing out what they love best. For example, a 5-year-old might like to color, or a 12-year-old may enjoy crafting. Let them take part in the activity and ask them how they feel about the recent events.

 If they do bring it up, this is when you can put them at ease by talking through their feelings. You can tell them, "Okay. Let's do this activity together and as we're doing this activity, let's express how we are feeling."    

Let them guide the conversation. Listening and answering questions age appropriately while reassuring them.

Why is it important to have conversations with your children?

We must talk to them because not talking about it can cause trauma, distress, anxiety and even PTSD. Children might see the news and reflect on themselves, thinking, "It could happen to me."

Parents and caregivers should explain that you are there for them. If the child is going to camp and has concerns, families can come up with a plan to offer reassurance.

What should parents do if their child is worried, but they, too, are grappling with their own emotions?

If you are not ready to have the conversation, we can assist them or have the other parent/ caregiver step in.  It is always great to have someone who is calm and collected, rather than someone who is anxious, overwhelmed and distressed, because you will just pass on that anxiety to the child.

Cook Children’s wants to reassure parents and caregivers that you are not alone. If you are not ready to have the conversation, you can seek professional help.  Learn more about Cook Children's behavioral health services or to schedule an appointment for your child, contact 682-885-3917.

When should you seek out professional help?

 If your child is having symptoms:

• Loss of appetite
• Feelings of overwhelm
• Feelings of helplessness
• Jittery
• Difficulty concentrating
• They are not able to do their daily routine.

Learn more about Cook Children's resources online and behavioral health services.  Families can access mental health resources 24/7 through MHMR by calling 1-800-866-2465.

Camp ID’s Growing Impact
Suzanne Whitworth, M.D., division chief of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Cook Children’s, was the first physician to attend Camp ID in 2011, demonstrating early medical support for the program.

The camp's reach has significantly expanded, particularly with the involvement of Natalia Chaimowitz, M.D., Ph.D., who has been instrumental in spearheading Cook Children's Immunology Clinic since 2022. Thanks to Dr. Chaimowitz's leadership and the clinic's support, Camp ID now proudly hosts 19 families, a testament to its growing impact.

“We hosted the 2025 Camp ID in March and doubled the size of our attendance this year with 19 families,” Nurse Practitioner Rachael Scott, said. “It’s the one weekend a year families really look forward to and one family even said it was the first family vacation they’ve ever had!”

The Camp ID Experience
“I’ve always believed that one of the most important things in life is the connection we make with others,” Stroud said. “That is what camp is all about—making new connections, friendships and memories.”

At Camp ID, campers have the opportunity to make friends and participate in unforgettable activities - like fishing, playing ball, climbing a ropes course and having campfires - all while feeling safe with on-site medical support. They also go beyond traditional fun and build supportive, lasting relationships with others who share similar life experiences.

“I believe what our patients and families love most about camp is the opportunity to meet and connect with other families who are going through similar medical and life experiences,” Daniele Gibbons, MS, a certified child life specialist, said. “Seeing our patients and families build new relationships, try new things and experience the spirit of camp brings our staff so much joy!”

Many families have had the experience of a lifetime and look forward to camp every year. 

The Large Family: Attending Camp ID Since 2018
Alison and Daniel Large have been bringing their kids to Camp ID since 2018. Their son, Carter, who has an immune disorder and is a patient of Dr. Chaimowitz, first experienced the camp at just two and a half years old.

“For children with immune disorders like Carter, Camp ID at Camp John Mark is more than just a weekend camp—it’s a life-changing experience,” Dr. Chaimowitz said. “It gives them a chance to step outside the routines of medical care, build lasting friendships with others who understand their journey, and experience the joy of simply being a kid in a safe, supportive environment.”

Despite facing significant physical challenges, including navigating life in a wheelchair, difficulties with gripping and eating, and frequent hospitalizations (22 visits in 2019 and 15 in 2020), Carter has demonstrated remarkable persistence and an unyielding spirit. His journey has not only cultivated incredible mental strength within himself but has also profoundly inspired his entire family.

“Being hospitalized can be so difficult because you want to do everything in your power to care for your kid and try to make their experiences easier,” Alison said. “It’s also hard on parents and Cook Children’s is great about helping you feel better.”

Camp staff and medical staff work together to operate Camp ID, which creates a safe environment where kids can simply be themselves and share the magic of camp.

 “I recommend other families to try the camp 100%! Camp ID is amazing and the staff and volunteers is so fantastic,” Alison said. “They really work to build up your kid and your family!”

Alison and Daniel’s daughter, Cadence, also loves camp and the opportunity to meet other siblings. Alison and Daniel say being with others who are walking the same path fosters a sense of community and understanding.

Register for Camp ID 2026
When: February 27 – March 1, 2026

Where: Camp John Marc (4925 Greenville Avenue, Suite 400, Dallas, TX 75206)

Registration opens in the fall. All Cook Children’s Immunology Clinic patients will receive a “save-the-date” in October. Enrollment is on a first-come, first-served basis with a waitlist available once all spots are filled.

Have questions? Email Betty Stroud: betty.stroud@cookchildrens.org.

“I dropped off Avyee and asked my dad if I could go one more ride,” Wyatt recalls.

Jimmy agreed. Wyatt drove to a new subdivision, where many of the homes were still being built or were vacant. The road was unpaved. Wyatt hit loose gravel while making a sharp turn, causing his golf cart to tip over. The cart landed on his foot, causing severe injuries.

“I was yelling for help,” said Wyatt.

The accident happened in front of a home where a family had just moved in that day. The mother there picked up Wyatt and rushed him to his home. As the unfamiliar car pulled up with Wyatt, Avyee rushed inside to tell April.

“I got outside and just saw this stranger holding Wyatt like a baby, and Jimmy wrapping his feet in a swim towel,” April said.

Jimmy sprang into action, grabbing his car keys and rushing him to the local emergency room, where Wyatt was stabilized and transferred to Cook Children’s Medical Center-Fort Worth.

The 11-year-old’s innocent evening stroll ended with scattered road rash along his side, three broken bones, and two ripped tendons.

April shares that it was not until the next day, when they met with the plastic surgeon, that they realized the severity and trauma their family had endured.

“I realized this is our new reality right now,” April said. “We’d have full days of surgeries, with doctors and nurses constantly in and out.”

During the first few days, the Hatchers were overwhelmed with friends and family pouring in to tend to their two youngest children at home. Their youngest was just 8 months old and breastfeeding. It was then that she realized the trauma affected her whole family.

She recalls one moment in the hospital where she was caring for Wyatt and his baby brother, Bodynn. April explained to Wyatt that while the trauma happened to him, it affected everyone.

She told him, "You must be patient versus expectant. We are all learning new things."

“It was a hard lesson for him, and just a beautiful opportunity to remind him that he was the one in the hospital bed, but it was changing all of our lives,” April said.

In the two years since the accident, Wyatt has undergone 11 surgeries and one tendon release. Wyatt's last tendon release surgery with a podiatrist will be when he is 18.

He says it was the words of an anesthesiologist that helped him face those surgeries head-on.

“He said, ‘When you face a challenge, you have to meet it, greet it, and then defeat it,’” Wyatt recalls.

Camp RISE

The family came to know their Cook Children’s child life specialist well. She suggested they attend Cook Children’s Trauma Support Group. Through the group, they learned about Camp RISE, a camp focused on families who have experienced a traumatic event. The camp helps families build coping skills, process trauma, and meet other families, all while taking part in fun activities like zip lining.

“It was an escape from the city life,” April said. “Being out where the stars are so numerous and it's just an oasis, and it’s just such an excitement.”

As the Hatchers arrived for their first day of camp, they were greeted with cheers and welcomed to their private cabin. Avyee, Bodynn, Wyatt, Jimmy, and April were excited for the experience.

Wyatt admits his favorite part of camp was archery, but during his second year, he felt compelled to encourage other children through their trauma. He credits Matthew 17:20-21 for finding that courage.

“If you have faith, faith the size of a mustard seed, you could tell a mountain to move and jump,” Wyatt recites.

To Wyatt, it was about giving hope to someone else.

“This is never going to be normal, but it will become a new normal, and it's going to be okay eventually,” said Wyatt.

After two years at Camp RISE, the Hatcher family graduated in 2024. April said it was a bittersweet moment. The family received a book signed by all the Trauma Support Group staff.

“The ripples were extensive, in what they had us do,” April said. “It’s just a scaffold to bring such healing.”

Just two weeks after the accident, wound vac and all, Wyatt used the anesthesiologist’s wise words to conquer any fears or hesitation he had about getting back in the golf cart. His dad placed him in the seat and gently drove him around the front yard, eventually taking him on the road.

Two years later, at 13, he shows his scar without hesitation. He openly shares and explains the accident with maturity.  

 For Wyatt’s 13^th birthday, he wanted to see starfish and swim with the dolphins. It was being with the dolphins that captivated him. He now has aspirations of becoming a Marineland dolphin trainer.

During that birthday adventure, April says Wyatt found his voice. On his own, while his parents watched, the 13-year-old had to explain to employees and the dolphin trainer why he wears a scuba sock on his injured foot. A scuba sock was something dolphins had never seen before. The trainer told Wyatt he would teach the dolphin what the sock was.

"It was the coolest moment for our kid," April said. "He just walked away with so much more confidence."

iCan Bike

Cook Children’s recently co-hosted a five-day camp, iCan Bike, with iCan Shine, an organization that offers a variety of programs to enrich and impact the lives of children with disabilities. Over a week, riders learn how to independently stabilize a bike with the help of volunteers as they gradually discover the skill and joy of riding a bike. The bike camps occur in the summer months, typically in June or July, and consist of 75 minute sessions per day with a maximum of eight riders per session. Parents, teachers and therapists describe the results as miraculous!

iCan Dance

iCan Dance is a program in Fort Worth, TX, that teaches people with disabilities to dance. The camp takes place over five days and encourages people to find joy through dancing. At the end of the week, the participants get to show off their new dance skills by performing in a big recital. The foundation of the iCan Dance program is patience, as it takes a patient understanding of each dancer to create an effective dancing program. The staff and volunteers at iCan Dance want to see people with disabilities believe in themselves and learn a new skill!

Camps for Kids are specialized camps that offer unforgettable experiences – from reeling in a fish to conquering the ropes course. They also go beyond traditional fun as they provide opportunities for campers to build supportive, lasting relationships with others who share similar life experiences.

Each weeklong camp and weekend retreat focuses on a different diagnosis or patient population. The goal is to create a sense of normalcy by providing experiences that help campers learn skills and gain independence. Click here to view a list of summer and weekend camps opportunities provided for eligible patients.  

Camp staff and medical staff work together to operate the camps, which creates a safe environment where kids can simply be themselves and share the magic of camp.

Kimberly Henry, a respiratory therapist at Cook Children's, has volunteered at camps for 18 years. 

Henry says these camps are an opportunity for education and learning more about what's necessary for daily care and health. Campers learn and grow alongside other children like themselves.

“I love the time spent with the campers making sure they are having a great time and learning how to take ownership,” Henry said. “To me, it’s rewarding to turn a child’s thoughts from ‘I can’t do that because I have muscular dystrophy or asthma’ to, ‘I can do that and I have muscular dystrophy or asthma.’”

Liz Barriteau, respiratory patient family asthma and trach educator at Cook Children’s, encourages volunteers to get involved with Camps for Kids. She says the most rewarding aspect of volunteering at Camps for Kids is “seeing the children being set free.”

“My advice is that if you like working with children, just do it!” Barriteau said. “It is very rewarding, and it is for a great cause. Camps need counselors, male and female, in order for camps to function well and safely. Without counselors, there is no Camps for Kids.”

If you’d like to volunteer at a camp this summer, please reach out to that camp’s coordinator listed here.

To donate:
Camps for Kids is a donor-funded program ensuring that all campers’ fees are provided. Each camp is targeted to provide memorable experiences to campers with a similar diagnosis. If you’d like to donate and provide these deserving children an experience that will impact them for the rest of their lives, click here.

As Cook Children’s pediatricians, we are getting the forms daily. And the questions that come along with it.

“Can my kids go to summer camp this year?”

“Are we putting ourselves at risk by letting them go?”

While CLEARING your child for summer camp may be straight-forward for us, deciding whether or not they should attend camp this year can be a much more difficult question for families.

“Over time we will know more about the amount of disease in each community and the risk of being in a group setting at camp. At a minimum, camps have to maintain social distancing, wipe surfaces, enforce hand washing frequently, etcetera - and no high-risk children should attend,“ says Suzanne Whitworth, M.D., medical director of Infectious Diseases at Cook Children’s.

Some camps nationwide are choosing to hold smaller sessions, with fewer kids. Many are imposing daily temperature checks. Some are even requiring a camper be tested for the virus before starting. The American Camp Association has recently put out a lengthy guide for camps to help them comply with CDC recommendations.

Obviously, there’s no easy answer here. But here are some things to think about in making your decision (developed in part by the thoughtful physicians at Cook Children's Southwest Harris Parkway office):

1. How healthy is your child? Do they have any chronic health conditions that would put them at an increased risk of significant illness from coronavirus, such as diabetes, asthma or immune deficiency?

2. How healthy are your other household members? Is there anyone who your child has frequent contact with who is elderly or at increased risk of severe illness from coronavirus?

3. How important is this camp to your child? If it is something they feel ambivalent about, it is probably not worth the exposure. If they have been looking forward to it since last year, it may deserve a serious family discussion.

4. What safety measures is the camp taking? Is there a screening process? Are there attempts at some degree of distancing? What happens if someone gets sick during camp? It is very possible, if someone gets sick at the camp, everyone will be sent home. It’s for this reason if you do send your child, it’s best that your family plan to be available for an unexpected pick-up.

5. If your child gets sick at camp, it could potentially mean the child or family would need to be on home quarantine for two weeks. What impact would this have on your household?

As for my family? My kids are young, 4 and 6. We had plans to attend four daytime camps in Fort Worth, for 1-2 weeks each. We canceled those plans. My kids aren’t emotionally tied to the idea of camp, and while they’ll be a little disappointed, we will find other ways to get outdoors, plan some fun projects, and interact with other kids virtually (if you haven’t tried a Zoom dinner date with another chicken-nugget-eating family once a awhile…try it!).

Stay Safe,

Dr. Diane

Camps for Kids includes specialized camps that give kids the opportunities to catch a fish, ride a horse for the first time, shoot a bull’s-eye at archery, challenge themselves on a ropes course or fly down a zip line.

They can also learn about their diagnoses and make friends that are just like them. Camp counselors work to provide a safe and therapeutic environment that allows these children and youth to share the experience of going to camp.

For campers this is an opportunity to spend time with others who don’t have to be told how something feels or what it is like – they know.

“These kids understand each other. They’ve been there. They all have someone here with the same concerns whether it’s baldness or scars or easily fatigued or just looking different from surgery or disease,” said Jill Koss, director of Family Services at Cook Children’s. “No words have to be spoken because you automatically understand why someone has no hair or a port in their chest or they look different. There’s no explanation that needs to be given.”

Cook Children’s medical staff is also a big part of Camps for Kids. Along with the staff’s emotional support, patients are treated by physicians, nurses and clinical staff from Cook Children’s.

Joel Steelman, M.D., an endocrinologist at Cook Children's, has been involved in medical summer camps since he worked at a camp for cerebral palsy patients as a resident. He's done diabetes camps almost every year since the late 1990s. 

Dr. Steelman said these camps are an opportunity for education and learning more about what's necessary for daily care and health. Many of the adults and counselors at the camps have the same medical condition as the campers.

"I think it's important for campers to see these role modes," Dr. Steelman said. "I think the medically based summer camps are great. They offer the opportunity for kids with various chronic medical needs to participate in fun activities with a group of adults, who understand and manage their medical needs. It adds a routineness to the summer camp experience. All the children who attend have very similar medical needs as opposed to attending an average camp where that wouldn’t be the case. There would be the potential issue of adults and other campers misunderstanding the additional care and monitoring needed for that particular camper." 

Thanks to the generosity of our community, all camps are offered at no costs to patients and their families. Your gift to Camps for Kids will allow our patients the opportunity to experience a life-changing camp experience.

To donate:

This year's North Texas Giving Day designee is Camp for Kids. Camps for Kids is a donor funded program ensuring that all campers’ fees are provided. Each camp is targeted to provide memorable experiences to campers with a similar diagnosis. Join us by providing these deserving children an experience that will impact them for the rest of their lives.