Each year 20 million children between the ages of newborn and 18, are hospitalized within the United States according to the National Center for Health Statistics. For some of these children and their families, a stay in the hospital is  a planned event for a specialized test, surgical procedure, or ongoing treatement for chronic illness. But many children are admitted to the hospital because of a sudden illness or injuries sustained in an accident or traumatic event. Whether planned or unplanned, a once-in-a-lifetime experience or one-in-a-series of encounters with the health care system, each hospitalization can have a major impact on the child and family.

In the last 30 years, research by psychologists has suggested that 10 to 30 percent of all hospitalized children suffer severe psychological disturbances and that as many as 90 percent suffer emotional upsets because of the hospital stay. When the children are admitted, they feel abandoned by their families, and their sense of alienation is intensified by the first day in hospital when an average of 54 different strangers enter their room.

Disturbances during hospitalization can manifest themselves in loss of appetite, insomnia, bed-wetting and thumb-sucking and frequently in great hostility toward the parents who brought the child to the hospital. Carefully designed therapy comfort companions and engagement activities are part of an integrated approach to prevent the hospital stay from damaging the child-parent relationship. With thousands of OwieBowWowie’s™ in the arms of children in hospitals, Owie is the leading solution to a safe, static free, therapeutic comfort friend in their time of great need.