a few ideas

[The_Princess_of_Bozonia]

As I've mentioned, I did some time in hospitals as a child; that was where I came to have a special affection for clowns, as they were always the ones to take my mind off things whenever they came to visit. So from the perspective of an on-again-off-again patient, here's an idea I really found helpful: use potentially scary medical supplies for funny, non-threatening purposes. For instance, one clown used a roll of gauze to tie a big, floppy bow in my hair. Or use an Ace bandage as a stylish scarf, etc. I haven't tried this yet, but I've often wondered how it would look if you put beads inside IV or green oxygen tubing and made it into jewelry.

[Scruffy]

it reminds me of the movie patch adams, when Robin Williams took a red enema bulb, snipped off the nozzle and made a clown nose from it. 8)

[BIPS]

Interesting Ideas!!

To make the threatening not so scary.....

I like it.....I'm about to get into this full swing this summer so I definitely use this as a tool.

[stitches]

I went to a cancer center and gave fish stickers to the kids. They usually had their moms stick them on the IV bag! Anything to bring a smile!

[The_Princess_of_Bozonia]

The way I see it is this; when you're a kid taken out of your normal home environment and put in an unfamiliar, noisy, crowded hospital where scary things happen on a regular basis, it's easy to develop an aversion to certain things (or places, or people) that you associate with pain and sickness. It really helped to be able to see that the "instruments of torture" were just objects that I had power over.

Stitches, that's pretty cool; kinda like an ersatz aquarium. You know, I used to have a little fake aquarium in my dorm room with realistic plastic fish that swam around directed by magnets inside... (Good for freaking out the administrators who thought I was keeping live fish!) Maybe someone could put a couple of tiny fake fish, some gravel and fake greenery in an IV bag filled with water and call it a portable aquarium.

[stitches]

That would be hysterical!

[saphireSue]

I have a pen that looks like a needle that I draw with. Stickers are a big hit and it's safe for kids.

[saphireSue]

just had to add this, in rehab we had a young guy in a full back brace, we call em turtle shells any way it was about Halloween so we decorated him us like a turtle, with construction paper. He had the coolest costume.

[Willace-the-Clown]

Princess your not alone my friend wheeler hasd to be in a Shrine hosptile on & off in his childhood & only time he felt good were when the Shrine Clowns were there he wanted to bring others the joy they brought him that he is now a Clown

[tuttifrutti]

I was in the hospital in ninth grade and I made balloons from my hospital bed for my nurses and what not..kind of backwards hospital clowning, eh?