Parenting a Child with HIV

Women & HIV/AIDS

Parenting a Child with HIV

Having a Child with HIV/AIDS

If you are a parent of a child with HIV/AIDS, you can take comfort knowing that there is hope for your child's future. Eighty percent of infected children have a slow rate of disease progression. Children age 5 and older have rates of disease progression similar to young adults. With treatment children with HIV survive for longer now and have an improved quality of life because of new HIV drugs, good care, and fewer opportunistic infections.

Drug Therapy

There is no cure for HIV/AIDS, but there are HIV medicines (also called antiretrovirals) that slow down the disease. Guidelines for treating infants and children with HIV are changing as experts learn more from treatment studies. Ask your child’s doctor about the best time to start HIV treatment. This will depend upon many factors. Keep in mind that even if treatment is able to decrease the amount of HIV in your child’s blood so that it is undetectable, your child still has HIV and still needs treatment.

Since no single drug can fight HIV alone, your child will take several drugs every day once treatment begins. He or she will have to take them exactly how your doctor tells you to. Your child can't miss doses or stop taking the drugs or they won't work. Ask your child’s doctor about any side effects the drugs might cause, such as changes in body shape, muscle problems, or vomiting, so you will be ready to help your child.

If your child is in school, it's important that your child gets all of his or her HIV medicines. You and your child (if appropriate) should decide what school staff to tell about his or her HIV status. The person giving the medicines should be told your child's HIV status, side effects of the drugs, and special requirements (like drugs that have to be taken with food). The school should keep your child's HIV status confidential unless you decide to tell other staff.