My Special Aflac Duck®

This soft and cuddly companion helps children prepare for medical procedures, communicate their feelings, practice distraction techniques and so much more.

Aflac is committed to supporting families with children diagnosed with cancer or a blood disorder like sickle cell and the medical professionals who provide compassionate care for them when they need it most.

Making a real impact

My Special Aflac Duck has been evaluated in a longitudinal clinical trial with 160 patients between ages 3 and 10, across 8 hospitals in the US. Patients were randomly assigned to receive My Special Aflac Duck or their local hospital’s standard care. Preliminary findings suggest patients who interacted with My Special Aflac Duck experienced reductions in distress, nausea, pain, and treatment and procedural anxiety compared to patients who did not.

Reduced Distress

Reduced Nausea

Reduced Pain

Your comforting companion

This brave little duck is a fun-loving, loyal companion who also understands what it’s like to go through treatment.

For Children with Cancer

The duck offers methods to support children in difficult moments, be it when they feel unwell or in moments of unease before, during or after a hospital visit.

For Children with Sickle Cell

Accessories specifically designed for sickle cell help children cope in difficult moments, whether it’s during a pain crisis, a hospital visit or anywhere in between.

What’s inside the box

Medical Play Accessories

The duck is designed to accompany kids during treatment and can be used in medical play. The duck comes equipped with a port-a-cath, stethoscope, pulse oximeter and syringe.

Feeling Cards

Sometimes, children have a difficult time saying how they feel - but the duck doesn’t. Children can communicate their feelings by tapping one of the 7 included feeling cards to the lights on the duck’s chest!

Soundscapes®

Designed with child life specialists and psychologists, the Soundscapes Spaceship accessory lets children listen to sounds of a forest, ocean, farm or amusement park - perfect for practicing distraction therapy.

More than just a duck

We’ve developed resources such as therapeutic activities, how-to-videos, and use cases for how to implement My Special Aflac Duck into patient care. Visit the Resource Hub to learn more.

Family focused from the start

We designed My Special Aflac Duck hand-in-hand with more than 100 families undergoing treatment at the Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta to create a companion that provides comfort and joy.