Purpose Health care focus is shifting from solely looking at surviving cancer to elements of attention relating to living with it on a daily basis.The young child's experiences are crucial to providing evidence based care. The aim of this study was to explore the everyday life of young children as expressed by the child and parents at six months and one year post diagnosis. Methods Interviews were conducted with children and their parents connected to a paediatric oncology unit in Southern Sweden. A qualitative content analysis of interview data from two time points, six months and one year post diagnosis, was carried out. Results The process of living with cancer at six months and at one year post diagnosis revealed the child's striving for an ordinary, everyday life. Experiences over time of gaining control, making a normality of the illness and treatment and feeling lonely were described. Conclusion Nurses have a major role to play in the process of striving for a new normal in the world post-diagnosis, and provide essential roles by giving the young child information, making them participatory in their care and encouraging access to both parents and peers. Understanding this role and addressing these issues regularly can assist the young child in the transition to living with cancer. Longitudinal studies with young children are vital in capturing their experiences through the cancer trajectory and necessary to ensure quality care.

Background Health care focus is shifting for children from surviving childhood cancer to living with it on a daily basis. There is a need to document health and function in the everyday lives of young children with cancer using the multidimensional framework and language of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health – Children and Youth (ICF-CY). Aims The aims of this study were (1) to document health and functioning in the everyday lives of young children with cancer using ICF-CY codes and (2) to identify a comprehensive code set that can aid clinical assessment. Method Interviews with children diagnosed with cancer and their parents, were transcribed, reviewed for content and coded to the ICF-CY using linking procedures. Results A comprehensive code set (n = 70) for childhood cancer was identified. The majority of content identified to codes was related to activity and participation describing social relations with family, peers and professionals, preschool attendance and play, as well as issues related to support and independence.

BACKGROUND:: Providing qualified, evidence-based healthcare to children requires increased knowledge of how cancer affects the young child's life. There is a dearth of research focusing on the young child's experience of everyday life. OBJECTIVE:: The purpose of this study was to explore young children's and their parents' perceptions of how cancer affects the child's health and everyday life shortly after diagnosis. METHODS:: Thirteen children with newly diagnosed cancer aged 1 to 6 years and their parents, connected to a pediatric oncology unit in Southern Sweden, participated in this study through semistructured interviews. Child and parent data were analyzed as a family unit, using qualitative content analysis. RESULTS:: Everyday life was spent at hospital or at home waiting to go back to hospital. Analysis led to the following categories: feeling like a stranger, feeling powerless, and feeling isolated. CONCLUSIONS:: The child wants to be seen as a competent individual requiring information and participation in care. Parents need to be a safe haven for their child and not feel forced to legitimize painful and traumatic procedures by assisting with them. Nurses play a major role in the lives of children. Research with and on the young child is necessary and a way of making them visible and promoting their health and well-being. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE:: Nurses need to reevaluate the newly diagnosed child's care routines so as to shift focus from the illness to the child. This requires competent nurses, secure in their caring role.