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INTERDISCIPLINARY PEDIATRIC PALLIATIVE CARE
INTERDISCIPLINARY PEDIATRIC
PALLIATIVE CARE
EDITED BY
Foreword
Preface
About the Artist
Contributors
17 Psychological Symptoms
Chase Samsel, Kathleen Perko, Lori Wiener, and Maryland Pao
18 Existential Suffering and Distress
Elisha Waldman and Mark Bartel
19 Neurological Symptoms
Shih-Ning Liaw, Jenna E. Freitas, and Julie Hauer
20 Pediatric Delirium in the Palliative Care Setting
Paula Tran, Jeffrey Moss, Eunice Koh, Katherine Ort, Richard J.
Shaw, and Michelle Goldsmith
21 Fatigue
Christina Ullrich, Shana Jacobs, and Pamela S. Hinds
22 Sleep and Circadian Rhythms
Toluwalase A. Ajayi, Eric S. Zhou, and Valerie E. Rogers
23 Prevention and Treatment of Pain in Children with Serious Illness
Stefan J. Friedrichsdorf, Lauren Heathcote, Michael Sangster,
Donna Eull, and Amber Borucki
24 Respiratory Symptoms
Rose Sharpe, Megan Jordan, Raymond Barfield, Sarah Gall,
Margarita Bidegain, Kristen Lakis, Renee Bartle, and Emily Layok
25 Gastrointestinal Symptoms
Kevin Madden and Margaret M. Mahon
26 Dermatologic Conditions and Symptom Control
Kimberly A. Bower, Julie Good, Anke Reineke, Cristina Gordon,
and Michele R. Burdette-Taylor
27 Easing Distress When Death Is Near
Debra Lotstein and Rachel Rusch
Section IV Illness and Treatment Experience
28 Prenatal and Neonatal Palliative Care
Christy Cummings, Anne Sullivan, Lauren Cramer, and Renee
Boss
29 Children with Complex Chronic Conditions
Jori Bogetz, Christopher A. Collura, and Christy Torkildson
30 Advanced Heart Disease
Melissa K. Cousino, Chelsea Heneghan, and Elizabeth D. Blume
31 Cystic Fibrosis and Other Childhood Lung Diseases
Elisabeth Potts Dellon, Jessica Goggin, and Elliot Rabinowitz
32 Solid Organ Transplant
Timothy Klouda, Debra Boyer, Lynne Helfand, Michael McCown,
Nicholas Purol, and Dawn Freiberger
33 Oncological Illnesses
Sarah McCarthy, Kimberly A. Pyke-Grimm, and Angela M. Feraco
34 Hematologic Symptoms
Barbara Speller-Brown, Jillian Campbell, Allistair Abraham, Priyal
Patel, Lisa Humphrey, and Jennifer Webb
35 Primary and Acquired Immune Deficiency Disorders
Wei Li Adeline Koay, Natella Rakhmanina, Megan Wilkins, Sarah
Matthews, and Ami Doshi
Index
FOREWORD
“We have such a long way to go,” said the boy. “Yes, but look how far we
have come,” sighed the horse.
Charlie Mackesy (The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse)
Over the past 25 years the field of pediatric palliative care has grown
exponentially from its early beginnings in the children’s hospice
movement to its current status as a pediatric specialty and the
professionalization of team members’ respective disciplines in
palliative care. In 1998, the World Health Organization first
published its guideline on “Cancer Pain Relief and Palliative Care in
Children,” setting a public health framework for a global call to action
to provide palliative care to children with life-threatening illnesses
and their families. In 2001, in the United States, the Institute of
Medicine (now the National Academy of Medicine) published its
seminal report entitled “When Children Die.” This groundbreaking
review of the care of dying children in the United States concluded
that care was neither competent nor compassionate, identified a
host of barriers, and offered a series of wide-ranging
recommendations to address this serious public health need. In
2011, the first edition of this textbook was published, offering an
interdisciplinary evidenced-based compilation of the growing
knowledge base in this nascent field with an expansive perspective
on what constitutes the field of pediatric palliative care. In the
ensuing years, numerous national and international policies have
supported the integration of pediatric palliative care into healthcare
systems, with the World Health Organization’s Resolution in 2014
calling it “an ethical responsibility of its member states.”
Now, in 2021, this second edition demonstrates how the research
expertise, clinical practice, educational efforts, and policy reform
have evolved to assure that humane, competent, and compassionate
care to children with serious illness and their families is possible.
This publication comes at a time when the International Children’s
Palliative Care Network estimates that up to 21.5 million children
worldwide are in need of a palliative care approach and up to 8
million require specialty palliative care, with the majority who require
care living in low- and middle-income countries. The need for wide
dissemination of this textbook as an educational resource is
compelling.
For the reader, the text’s format models the concept of
interdisciplinary team care, with each of the editors being
internationally recognized clinician educators, researchers, and
champions in pediatrics, nursing, and psychology. All of the chapters
are team-authored and showcase the growing range and depth of
expertise and scholarship in the fields of pediatrics, psychology,
social work, rehabilitation, chaplaincy, and child life. With a
thoughtful and intentional approach to using poetry, art, clinical
vignettes, and reflections, the authors demonstrate the art and
science of providing physical, psychological, and spiritual care to the
seriously ill child and family.
The book is divided into four sections that frame the critical
thinking and domains of care in pediatric palliative care, setting the
stage for individual chapters that discuss a range of essential topics
including age-appropriate communication methods, shared decision-
making, ethical challenges, family dynamics, experienced ways to
navigate “a careful dance” with the other pediatric experts caring for
the child and family, symptom control, the importance of healthcare
provider’s introspection and self-care, and much more. In multiple
chapters, the authors identify the need for more research in, for
example, symptom assessment and control, new technologies and
better payment methods to further the evidence base for
standardized protocols, treatment guidelines, and economic data
that are essential aspects to assuring full integration into healthcare
systems.
This unique format and scope allows learners to become
educated in the basics of best practices in pediatric palliative care
while serving as a compendium of referenced educational materials
for those engaged in providing, teaching, or learning specialty
palliative care. For each of the disciplines reading this book, the text
is a combination of the basic skills that needs to be mastered and
the advanced knowledge the specialist in pediatric palliative care
needs to know.
This new comprehensive second edition is an up-to-date
reference and guide capturing the complexity and challenges that
healthcare providers face in caring for children with serious illness,
some of whom will die. It shows a way forward while emphasizing
an important principle: every encounter offers the clinician “the
opportunity for a sense of connection and meaning.”
Caring for these sick children and their families is a privilege and
a responsibility. Access to pediatric palliative care is a human right
imbedded in the right to health and in the right to freedom from
cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment. Fostering
interdisciplinary care and arming new pediatric teams with the
knowledge and experience presented in this textbook furthers the
call to action to make palliative care a reality for all children in need.
Kathleen M. Foley, MD
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Member Emeritus
Weill Cornell Medical College Professor Emeritus,
Department of Neurology
Holding the Moment by Evelyn Berde, (2007)
PREFACE
Allistair Abraham, MD
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
Division of Blood and Marrow Transplantation
George Washington University School of Medicine and Health
Sciences, Children’s National Hospital
Washington, DC, USA
Toluwalase A. Ajayi, MD
Medical Director of Palliative Medicine
Scripps Mercy Hospital San Diego
San Diego, CA, USA
Assistant Clinical Professor
Department of Pediatrics
University of California San Diego and Staff Researcher, Scripps
Research Translational Institute
San Diego, CA, USA
Elizabeth D. Blume, MD
Associate Professor
Director
Advanced Cardiac Therapies
Boston Children’s Hospital
Boston, MA, USA
Jori Bogetz, MD
Acting Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
Division of Bioethics and Palliative Care
Department of Pediatrics
University of Washington School of Medicine
Seattle Children’s Hospital and Research Institute
Seattle, WA, USA
Amber Borucki, MD
Anesthesiologist
Center of Pain, Palliative and Integrative Medicine
Benioff Children’s Hospitals
University of California at San Francisco (UCSF)
San Francisco, CA, USA
Debra Boyer
Associate Professor of Pediatrics
Harvard Medical School
Associate Medical Director, Lung Transplant Program
Boston Children’s Hospital
Boston, MA, USA
Kris Catrine, MD
Medical Director
Department of Pain Medicine, Palliative Care and Integrative
Medicine
Children’s Minnesota
Minneapolis, MN, USA
Christy Cummings, MD
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
Division of Newborn Medicine
Boston Children’s Hospital
Boston, MA, USA
Ami Doshi, MD
Director of Inpatient Palliative Care
Department of Pediatrics
Rady Children’s Hospital-San Diego
San Diego, CA, USA
Stefan J. Friedrichsdorf, MD
Professor in Pediatrics
University of California at San Francisco (UCSF)
Medical Director
Center of Pain, Palliative and Integrative Medicine
Benioff Children’s Hospitals
University of California at San Francisco (UCSF)
San Francisco, CA, USA
Sarah Gall, MD
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
Duke University Health System
Durham, NC, USA
Michelle Goldsmith, MD
Clinical Associate Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Stanford University School of Medicine
Stanford, CA, USA
Julie Good, MD
Clinical Associate Professor
Stanford University School of Medicine
Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine and
by Courtesy, Pediatrics
Stanford Children’s Health
Stanford, CA, USA
Cristina Gordon, MD
Voluntary Clinical Instructor
University of California San Diego
San Diego, CA, USA
Lisa Humphrey, MD
Director of Hospice and Palliative Medicine
Nationwide Children’s Hospital
Columbus, OH, USA
Shana Jacobs, MD
Associate Professor
Children’s National Hospital
Department of Pediatrics
The George Washington University
Washington, DC, USA
Megan Jordan, MD
Medical Director Pediatric Palliative Care
Assistant Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics
Duke University Health System
Durham, NC, USA
Timothy Klouda
Division of Pulmonary Medicine
Boston Children’s Hospital
Boston, MA, USA
Eunice Koh, MD
Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatric Critical Care
Stanford University School of Medicine
Stanford, CA, USA
Stephen Liben, MD
Director
Pediatric Palliative Care Program
Professor of Pediatrics
McGill University
Montreal Children’s Hospital
Montreal, QC, Canada
Robert Macauley, MD
Professor of Pediatrics
Cambia Health Foundation Endowed Chair in Pediatric Palliative Care
Oregon Health and Science University
Portland, OR, USA
Kevin Madden, MD
Assistant Professor
Department of Palliative Care and Rehabilitation Medicine
Division of Cancer Medicine
The University of Texas, MD Anderson Cancer Center
Houston, TX, USA
Daniel P. Mahoney, MD
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
Texas Children’s Hospital
Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, TX, USA
Michael McCown, DO
Chief, Pediatric Pulmonology
Walter Reed National Military Medical Center
Bethesda, MD, USA
Elissa G. Miller, MD
Chief, Division of Palliative Medicine
Division of Palliative Medicine
Nemours/Alfred I. DuPont Hospital for Children
Wilmington, DE, USA
Kim Mooney-Doyle, PhD, RN, CPNP-AC
Assistant Professor
University of Maryland School of Nursing
Baltimore, MD, USA
Jonathan Mullin, MD
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
Washington University School of Medicine
St. Louis, MO, USA
Sara Munoz-Blanco, MD
Assistant Professor
Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine/Pediatric Hospice and Palliative Medicine
Section of Palliative Care, Department of Internal Medicine
University of Texas Southwestern
Dallas, TX, USA
Katherine Ort, MD
Clinical Assistant Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and
Pediatrics
NYU Grossman School of Medicine Department of Child and
Adolescent Psychiatry and Department of Pediatrics
New York, NY, USA
Maryland Pao, MD
Clinical and Deputy Scientific Director
National Institute of Mental Health Intramural Research Program
Bethesda, MD, USA
Priyal Patel, DO
Assistant Professor
Hospice and Palliative Medicine
Pediatric Hematology/Oncology/Blood and Marrow Transplant
Nationwide Children’s Hospital
Elliot Rabinowitz, MD
Division of Pulmonary Medicine
Department of Psychosocial Oncology and Palliative Care
Boston Children’s Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Instructor of Pediatrics
Harvard Medical School
Boston, MA, USA
Chase Samsel, MD
Assistant Professor of Psychiatry
Harvard Medical School
Medical Director
Psychiatry Consultation Service
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Attending Psychiatrist
Pediatric Transplant Center
Boston Children’s Hospital
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Boston Children’s Hospital
Boston, MA, USA
Richard J. Shaw, MD
Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Pediatrics
Stanford University School of Medicine
Stanford, CA, USA
Anne Sullivan, MD
Instructor in Pediatrics
Attending Neonatologist
Division of Newborn Medicine
Boston Children’s Hospital
Boston, MA, USA
Paula Tran, MD
Clinical Assistant Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Stanford University School of Medicine
Stanford, CA, USA
Christina Ullrich, MD, MPH
Assistant Professor
Harvard Medical School
Clinical Director
Pediatric Advanced Care Team
Senior Physician
Psychosocial Oncology and Palliative Care
Pediatric Hematology/Oncology
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Boston Children’s Hospital
Boston, MA, USA
Children are born with rainbows in their hearts and you’ll never reach them
unless you reckon with rainbows.
CARL SANDBURG
We hope that the lives of all children will be filled with possibility,
with open horizons and rainbows into the future. Children with
serious illnesses, their families, and those who care for them
confront the realization that “not everything is possible,” that,
despite dramatic scientific and medical advances, the life spans of
some children will be shortened. This threat of premature loss
heightens the sense of time for children and families alike and
challenges clinicians to create new pathways of hope for them.
The interdisciplinary field of pediatric palliative care has emerged
over the past three decades, with rapid development in clinical care,
education, research, and policy. In this section, “Setting the Stage,”
themes, constructs, and emerging evidence that are foundational to
the spectrum of pediatric palliative care provide a conceptual
framework for this book and this field.
Words define, clarify, and communicate experience; their potential
impact is powerful in both positive and negative ways. The
importance of a common language cannot be underestimated when
clinicians from many disciplines care for children and families who
face extraordinary challenges. The opening chapter, “The Language
of Pediatric Palliative Care” sets this foundation.
Who are these children? Who are the parents and families who
care for them? Chapter 2 on the epidemiology of pediatric palliative
care portrays the distribution of conditions, their trajectories and
symptoms, and trends in mortality. The chapter also contains a
declaration that pediatric palliative care is a firmly established field.
Families are discussed regarding their structure, the “work of care”
for the child, coping, and financial issues. Overarching both the child
and family variables are epidemiological factors in healthcare
systems at regional, national, and international levels.
In Chapter 3, “Children’s Voices,” children and their siblings
provide another type of portrait: through their own words and
images they convey their experience of living with illness: their
awareness of its life-threatening nature, the undercurrent of
anticipatory grief, and their role in decision-making. These
experiences are a perfect prelude to the very next chapter, Chapter
4, which is on settings of care. This is because the settings are now
wherever a child needs palliative care. The nature of this care has
broadened and so, too, have the number of settings.
Chapter 5, social considerations and disparities, directly addresses
how the culture that creates disparities in healthcare in general can
also create disparities in pediatric palliative care. Cultural humility is
defined and described as a way of giving palliative care that
welcomes how individuals (children, families, care providers) can
discover how they are both different from each other and the same.
These discoveries guide best-fit palliative care for the ill child, family,
and care situation.
Pediatric palliative care programs have expanded, and this
unfolding of programs is described in Chapter 6, which shows their
growth and networking connections in a non-linear manner.
Programs are now characterized by links beyond hospital settings to
communities. Being informed by business plans has become a
necessity. Relatedly, Chapter 7 frames education and training as
benefitting from interdisciplinary approaches that span settings and
consider the skills of each learner and the knowledge gaps of each
as well. The knowledge and learning of an individual can translate
through planned actions to interdisciplinary team knowing.
“Setting the Stage” closes with Chapter 8, on quality in pediatric
palliative care and defines quality care as being based on knowing
the goals of all involved—the child, family, and care professionals.
Care based on goal awareness of all involved yields safe, effective,
patient-centered, timely, efficient, and equitable care. Providing that
kind of pediatric palliative care will help pediatric palliative care
providers from diverse disciplines to “reckon with rainbows” of all ill
children.
1 THE LANGUAGE OF PEDIATRIC PALLIATIVE
CARE
JOANNE WOLFE, PAMELA S. HINDS, AND BARBARA M. SOURKES
The Word
Oh, a word is a gem, or a stone, or a song,
Or a flame, or a two-edged sword;
Or a rose in bloom, or a sweet perfume,
Or a drop of gall is a word.
INTRODUCTION
When Emma had finished she was pleased with the look of her
web and hid herself at the side of it under a furze branch. She
watched and waited. She waited all night long and nothing
happened.
CHAPTER III
A NARROW ESCAPE
In the morning she was still watching and waiting, but at last there
was a sound. A deep humming was heard in the air as if a fairy
aeroplane were passing. It was so loud that even deaf Emma might
have heard it if she had not been too busy. Just then, however, her
hairs had received a wireless message to say there was a catch at
the far end of her web. Although a spider is much more patient than
you, and can sit still a long time, it is a quick mover when there is
need for speed. Emma darted out like a flash of lightning and found
a fly struggling in her web. It was a very small thin one, and poor
hungry Emma was disappointed not to see a larger joint for her
larder. She quickly settled it, however, and spun some web round it
to wrap it up, for, after all, it was something to eat and so worth
taking care of. She was still busy with her parcel when “Buzz, buzz,
buzz,” the whole web gave a big jump and there quite close to
Emma was a huge, terrible beast. A great angry yellow wasp,
making frightful growling noises and struggling desperately to get out
of the web. Poor Emma wasn’t very old or daring and she knew the
danger she was in, for this savage monster could kill her easily with
his sting. He was fighting hard against the sticky meshes of the web
and jerking himself nearer to her. She was too frightened to move,
and for a minute she hung on to her web limp and motionless looking
like a poor little dead spider. Then something happened. The wind
blew a little puff, the wasp put out all his strength and gave a twist,
the web already torn broke into a big hole and the great yellow beast
was free. He glared at Emma and hovered over her, buzzing
furiously. He would have liked to kill her, but luckily he was too afraid
of getting tangled up again in that sticky, clinging web, so, grumbling
loudly, he flew away.
“What did Emma do?”
Well, she quickly got over her fright and I think she had a little
lunch off her lean fly; then she looked at her web and was sorry to
see it so torn and spoilt. The best thing to do was to mend it then
and there, and as a spider always has more silk in her pocket, so to
speak, she was able to do it at once. She repaired it so well that it
didn’t look a bit as if it had been patched but just as if the new piece
had always been there, the pattern was just as perfect.
CHAPTER IV
ABOUT WEBS
I don’t believe you are feeling a bit afraid of spiders now, are you?
There is no reason why we should fear them, for they don’t bite or
sting us; and if they did the poison that paralyses and kills their prey
would not hurt us. Besides, they kill the insects that harm us. I saw a
spider’s web once full of mosquitoes, and you know what worrying
little pests they are. I was glad to see so many caught, but sorry for
the spider, as they didn’t look a very substantial meal. Then you
know how dangerous flies have been found to be, making people ill
by poisoning their food, so it is a good thing that spiders help us to
get rid of them.
Another reason to like spiders is for their webs. There is no animal
or insect that makes anything quite so wonderful and beautiful as
what these little creatures spin.
The spider’s web is really a snare for catching her food. The
strands of it are so fine as often to be invisible in some lights even in
the daytime, and of course quite invisible at night. Sometimes the
beetle or flying insect is so strong that he can tear the web and get
free, but not often, for the spider can do wonders with her thread.
She spins ropes and throws them at her big prey and doesn’t go
near it till it is bound and helpless.
Of course, there are many different kinds of spiders who spin
different kinds of webs. In a hotter country than this there is one that
is as big or rather bigger than your hand, and another called the
Tarantula whose bite is supposed to be so poisonous that it can kill
people, but this is very exaggerated.
A Beautiful Web.
As the spider’s web is only her snare, she naturally has to have
some kind of home, which must be quite near to her place of
business. If you look very close and follow one of the strands of the
web you will find some little dark cranny where the huntress can
hide. If the web is amongst trees it will probably be a leaf she has
pulled together with her thread and made into a dark little tunnel out
of which she darts when something is caught.
Now before we leave the spiders’ webs you may wonder why you
never see them so clearly as they show in the photographs, and I will
tell you the reason. You see if the spiders’ nets which are set to
catch sharp-eyed insects were always to show as clearly as they do
in the pictures, I am afraid they would really starve, for no fly would
be silly enough to go into such a bright trap. But sometimes in the
autumn, very early in the morning, the dew hangs in tiny beads on
the webs, and makes them show up clearly, and then it is that the
photographs are taken. If you get up early some still September
morning, just about the same time as the sun, and go for a walk in a
wood, or even along a country road, you may see the webs with
what look like strings of the tiniest pearls on them, and you will find
that until the sun has dried up all the little wet pearls, which are of
course dewdrops, the poor spider has not a ghost of a chance of
catching anything.
But to return to the spider herself. The one you know best is
probably the house-spider. It has eight legs and a body rather the
shape of a fat egg, with a little round bead of a head. It runs up the
walls, sometimes hanging by a thread from the ceiling, and seems
very fond of the corners of the room. How glad these house-spiders
must be when they get to a dirty untidy house, where they will be
safe from the broom. Most of us hate to see cobwebs in our houses,
and get rid of them as quickly as we can.
CHAPTER V
THE LITTLE HOUSE-SPIDER
I will tell you about a little house-spider who had a very exciting
adventure. She had made a beautiful web in the corner of a
bedroom, high up near the ceiling. One day her sensitive hairs told
her there was some sort of disturbance in the room, and looking
down from her web she saw all the furniture being moved out. The
curtains and rugs had gone and the bed was pushed up into a
corner. Then, to her dismay, a huge hairy monster came rushing up
the wall. Of course, it was only a broom, but the poor little spider was
so terrified she thought it was alive. It came nearer and nearer, and
all at once there was a terrific rush and swish right up the wall where
she lived, and web and spider disappeared. It was very alarming, but
you will be glad to hear that the little spider was not killed but only
stunned; and as soon as she came to her senses, she found herself
right in the middle of the broom. She hung on and kept quite still, and
soon the servants went into the kitchen to have some lunch and the
broom was stood up against the wall.
Now was the little spider’s chance to escape, and out she popped.
The coast seemed clear, so she scuttled up the wall and rested on
the top of the door. Spiders haven’t good sight, so she couldn’t see
much of the kitchen, but what she did see looked nice, and she
thought it a much more interesting place than a bedroom, besides
there were some flies about, so she determined to spin another web.
No sooner had she begun when there was a crash like an
earthquake. “Will horrors never cease?” thought the spider. It was
really only the slamming of the door, but it so startled her that she fell
and dropped on to the shoulder of some one who had just come in.
A Snare.
“Oh, Miss Molly!” cried cook, “you’ve got a spider on you, let me
kill it.”
“No, no,” said Molly, “that would be unlucky, besides it’s only a tiny
one,” and she took hold of the thread from which the spider hung
and put it out of doors. Wasn’t that a lucky escape? She ran up the
wall and got on to a window sill. Here she crouched down into a
corner making herself as small as she could for fear of being seen,
and then she fell asleep. You see she had gone through a great deal
that morning, and the excitement had thoroughly tired her out.
When evening came she woke up and felt very hungry, so she
quickly spun a web, and would you believe it, before it was even
finished she felt a quiver, and there was a silly little gnat caught right
in the middle. He was very tiny, but the spider wasn’t big, and he
made a very good meal for her. She didn’t stop even to wrap him up,
for she couldn’t wait, but gobbled him up on the spot.
CHAPTER VI
BABY SPIDERS
Before a spider lays her eggs, she spins some web on the ground.
She goes over it again and again, spinning all the time, till it looks
like a piece of gauze. Into this she lays her eggs—often over a
hundred—and covers them with more web and then wraps them up
into a round ball. I don’t suppose you would think it, but a spider is a
very devoted mother, and this white ball is so precious to her that
she carries it everywhere she goes and never lets it out of her sight.
She will hold it for hours in the sun to help to hatch the eggs, and
she would fight anything that tried to hurt it or take it away from her.
It is the same when the eggs are hatched out, for her babies are
always with her. Their home is on her back, and as there is such a
swarm of them, they cover her right up and you often can’t see the
spider for the young. Often some of them drop off, but they are
active little things and they soon climb on again. As long as they live
with their mother they have nothing to eat. This fasting, however,
doesn’t seem to hurt them for they are very lively; the only thing is
they don’t grow.
It doesn’t seem to matter very much even to grown-up spiders to
go without their dinners for several days. And when they do at last
get some food they gorge. They eat and eat and eat, and instead of
making themselves ill like you would do, they seem to feel very
comfortable and are able to go hungry again for some time. Perhaps
it is because, as babies, they got used to doing without food.
CHAPTER I
JOAN AND THE CANARIES
I wonder if you have ever watched young chickens. You can’t help
liking such babyish, fluffy little things; they are so sweet and so
different from the grown-up hens. I know a little girl who cried out,
“Look at all those canaries!” Of course, they are not really a bit like
canaries, and it was only because of their yellow coats that she
made the mistake.
Chickens are so lively and cheery, too; even when they are only a
day old they are able to feed themselves, and will run about picking
up grain. For such babies they are quite bold and will wander off a
long way from the coop, but when anything alarming comes along
they will all rush back to Mother Hen, making funny little peeping
noises showing they are rather frightened; and she answers, “Tuk,
tuk,” as much as to say, “You are little sillies, but I’m very fond of
you,” and takes them under her wing.
Joan was the little girl who had called them canaries, and you may
guess how she got teased about it. She had come to stay with an
aunt who had a farm, and as Joan had always lived in a town, she
couldn’t be expected to know very much about animals or birds. She
liked the cows and the goats and the horses but she loved the
chickens best of all. When she was missing, her aunt always knew
where to find her, and the chickens seemed to know her too and
were tamer with her than with any one else.
When anything alarming comes along they will all rush back to Mother Hen.
CHAPTER II
THE WORM
As yet only one small family of chickens had come out of their
eggs but they were quite enough for Joan to play with. She soon
made friends with them and gave them all names. There were:
Honeypot, Darkie, Piggy, Fluffy, Cheeky, Dolly and Long-legs. Darkie
was rather different from the others; he was a lively little chick with a
dark coat and white shirt front. Cheeky was the boldest and most
impudent. He would cock his little head on one side and stare at
Joan, and he was always the last to run to Mother Hen if anything
was the matter.
Dolly found a worm.
This is really what happened; it is quite true for Joan saw it all. I
am not quite so sure that the cock actually used these words
because, you see, Joan couldn’t understand his language, but she
thought he said something very like it.
CHAPTER III
JOAN SAVES A CHICKEN’S LIFE