Aims
To explore how parents experienced their child with delirium and how parents viewed our delirium management bundle.

Design
We conducted a qualitative exploratory descriptive study using semi-structured individual or dyad interviews.

Methods
Twelve semi-structured interviews with 16 parents of 12 critically ill children diagnosed with delirium in a paediatric intensive care unit were conducted from October 2022 to January 2023 and analysed through a reflexive thematic analysis.

Findings
We generated five themes: (1) knowing that something is very wrong, (2) observing manifest changes in the child, (3) experiencing fear of long-term consequences, (4) adding insight to the bundle, and (5) family engagement.

Conclusion
The parents in our study were able to observe subtle and manifest changes in their child with delirium. This caused fear of lasting impact. The parents regarded most of the interventions in the delirium management bundle as relevant but needed individualization in the application. The parents requested more information regarding delirium and a higher level of parent engagement in the care of their child during delirium.