Pain Management

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Pain control is very important. Good pain control not only makes your child more comfortable but also helps your child heal faster. It may also help to keep other problems or complications from occurring.

Please help your child’s doctors and nurses choose the best way to manage your child’s pain by doing the following:

  • Ask your child’s doctor or nurse if your child is likely to have pain, and if so for how long
  • Ask about things we can do to help take care of your child’s pain
  • Suggest ways to decrease pain for your child that have worked previously
  • Help your child’s doctor or nurse measure your child’s pain, when possible
  • Report any pain that has not decreased even after something has been done to help
  • Noise, light, heat, and cold can affect how your child handles pain. It is important that you let us know how these factors are affecting your child.
  • Possible side effects of pain medication include nausea, vomiting, constipation, rash, itching, and excessive sleepiness. Let your nurse know if your child is experiencing any of these reactions.

Pain Reporting

  • You will be shown a scale to use to help you and your child measure pain. Use the same scale each time.
  • The Wong-Baker Faces Pain Rating Scale is a commonly used scale, which has faces from smiling to crying. Pick the one that describes the pain best. “0” means no pain and “10” means the worst pain.  Rate the pain by how much your child is really hurting.
  • Other scales may include infant rating scale, a neonatal pain scale, or a picture for your child to color using different colors to show how much pain he or she is having.
  • Some other scales look at behaviors of the infant. These behaviors include facial looks, crying, breathing patterns, position of arms and legs, and alertness.

The doctors and nurses at Children’s Hospital want to work with you and your child to help measure and manage his or her pain correctly. While it may not be possible to eliminate all pain, we will strive to make your child as comfortable as possible.