A solicitor will give you more details, but I will recount what my solicitor told me in order to give you some idea.
A discretionary trust is where the trustees have discretion to make decisions about the money in the trust. I dont know how this would work for the situation you describe.
If you have more than one child, and stipulate in your will that your childrens inheritance goes into a trust until they are adults, then a discretionary trust is recommended as this allows the trustees to take money from the trust in exceptional circumstances, like illness of one of the children.