OBJECTIVE: To understand the lived experience of the family in caring for children with the HIV/AIDS virus. METHODS: The study was conducted in a university hospital in the first semester of 2010. Participants included seven family caregivers. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed using thematic analysis. RESULTS: There was evidence of a silencing of the diagnosis by the family caregiver whose life function became that of caregiver for the child. In terms of difficulties for care, these included: the health conditions of the mother or her death; hospitalizations that compromised schooling and reveaed the diagnosis; and fear of telling the diagnosis to the child. CONCLUSION: It is believed that health/nursing professionals need to employ strategies that enable these families to better cope with everyday life, advising them about care, providing information on HIV/AIDS to people in their social circle, and diminishing stigma and discrimination to which these children are exposed.
Caregivers; Family; Child care; Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome