!Xu

Using a co-design method with patients and clinicians from Evelina London Children’s Hospital, !Xu was designed to provide companionship and comfort to paediatric inpatients from admission through to post-discharge. By providing each child with a sterilisable cuddly toy that matches their hospital journey, !Xu is able to provide comfort, increase understanding and therefore reduce stress; these factors have been clinically proven to speed up healing.Stickers can be added to the toy to mimic conditions faced by children, and pages added to the book to show the toy undergoing the same procedures as the child. Each toy can be cleaned using current NHS sterilisation techniques to ensure infection control criteria are maintained. The current global pandemic has highlighted to us just how necessary the prevention of infection is, and !Xu enables safe play for your child.