Every once in awhile you get lucky and see your child’s pediatrician at the appointed time. Most of the time, however, you end up waiting for an hour or more. This is hard for most kids. My kids are excellent about waiting, but this is because they have done it so often due to my youngest daughter having Angelman Syndrome. Still, there was one little girl who screamed the entire time we were in the waiting room. The mother had nothing to keep the child occupied.

When my children were younger, I would allow them to bring one toy of their choosing along for the visit. In addition to that, I stashed a coloring book or notepad in the diaper bag along with a few crayons or a pen (they preferred to use mommy’s pen on special occasions). Then if the wait got to long, I would have something to keep them busy.

Another trick I used was to bring along a pack of fruit snacks. Gerber makes fruit snacks for younger children who aren’t quite ready for the real thing. If the toy and coloring supplies got to be boring, I’d bring out the fruit snacks. To fill up the wait time, I would only give the kids one fruit snack at a time. For fun I’d tell them each fruit snack was a new flavor, and then request that they identify the flavor for me.

Older children can bring their iPods or handheld video gaming systems. Just make sure the kids turn the volume off, or that they use headphones. You don’t want your child’s activities to interfere with the other families that are waiting to see the doctor. Sometimes I’ll do a Round Robin story with my older daughter while we wait. She’ll start a story on paper and then hand it to me. I add to the story and give it back. This continues until one of us decides to give the story an ending.

You may have better ideas of how to keep your children occupied, but please don’t expect them to sit still and wait the entire time with nothing to do.