When Jack fell down ... Jill came tumbling after. Siblings in the web of illness and disability.

This article examines the reactions of children to the complex illness and disability of their brothers and sisters. It proposes strategies of nursing support to increase the likelihood that these children will cope with the resultant family stress in a positive manner. In order to better understand their feelings, siblings of hospitalized children were interviewed and comments from other siblings who responded on a Web site, "Band-Aides and Blackboards: When Chronic Illness ... or Some Other Medical Problem ... Goes to School" were included. Themes were identified from this data and a distinction made between those suggesting stress and those that suggest resilience. Quotes from children are used to depict these themes; stress (responsibility, loneliness/resentment, fear, jealousy, guilt, sadness, embarrassment, and confusion) and resilience (lessons learned, independence, altruism). Because the nature of the sibling bond is a critical variable in contextualizing how siblings are affected by illness, it is defined and examined through the lens of socialization. Finally, strategies of intervention are suggested as clinical implications that lend themselves to the acronym SIBS: Support, Information, Balance, and Sensitivity.