'Clown docs' help comfort sick children

ST. LOUIS -- Caring for sick children is serious business, but a dose of silliness and humor can go a long way, too.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that three days a week, five clowns dress in white coats and visit children in the cancer, inpatient and outpatient units at St. Louis Children's Hospital. For 16 years, the clown docs have performed magic tricks, shared silly jokes and helped children take a mental break.

Jane Abendschein, also known as Dr. Tickles, says she and other clown docs wear white coats with their makeup and wigs. When the real doctors show up, the children aren't automatically afraid.

Doctors understand humor can relieve tension and stress, and jokes can create common ground.

London Fryman, age 20 months, laughed and shrieked with joy as Dr. Tickles blew bubbles and chased the little girl around the room in between cancer treatments.

With help from the clowns, London "has become more open and friendly, and she doesn't act scared," said her mother, Andrea Bowles of Olney, Illinois. "It's kept her acting like a kid. I want her to stay a kid and not worry about chemo."

Abendschein said, "The comment we frequently get from the parents is 'This is the first time my child has smiled today.' We're able to take them to a place mentally out of the hospital so they can forget where they are, they can play, and mom and dad get to see their child as a child and not a patient."

The hospital's foundation funds the annual $50,000 budget for the clown docs. Abendschein's husband, Dana Abendschein, is also one of them, along with an associate professor of cardiology at Washington University.

At a recent seminar, Children's staff members learned that slapstick humor is better than practical jokes. Sarcasm, racy, political and religious humor doesn't really work with children.

But "making fun of yourself is always safe," said Dr. Robert Rothbaum, a gastroenterologist at Children's. "If you can share a laugh together you can deliver the message that 'I like you.' It's a way of saying we're all on the same team."