Elsevier

Clinics in Perinatology

Volume 29, Issue 3, September 2002, Pages 445-457
Clinics in Perinatology

Challenges of judging pain in vulnerable infants

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0095-5108(02)00022-2Get rights and content

Section snippets

The sociocommunication model of pain

Optimal pain control requires an understanding not only of infant pain and the behaviors capable of communicating this distress, but also how observers, parents or nurses for example, attend to and interpret the infant's reactions and decide to use appropriate interventions for the child. The sociocommunication model of pain [9], [10] (Fig. 1) recognizes this complex sequence of interdependent events.

Summary

The inevitability of pain during infancy and its potential for destructive impact impose a burden on caregiving adults. An armamentarium of effective pharmacological, behavioral and environmental interventions is available if pain were recognized and accurately assessed. Infants have limited behavioral repertoires that make identification of specific needs difficult, mothers and other caregivers prone to high levels of protection and redundant care. But more specific care can best suit infant

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