MANAGING PAIN IN CHILDREN @jhayss- 10% post payout to steemkidss

As humans, we all experience pain in one way or the other. Children are not left out in this. One might ask what exactly do we mean by pain. Pain is an unpleasant sensation or feeling that is carried or conveyed to the brain by sensory neurons in the body.

Usually, pain in children is undertreated because of some myths about pain and its management in children. One other factor is the fear held by parents and health professionals.

One myth about pain management is that children don't feel pain but this is not true. Children sometimes become reluctant to tell their parents and health professionals they are in pain because of the fear of injection.

This becomes really difficult in the case of neonates. At this stage, they are not able to talk or express how they are feeling. In order not to undertreat the pain in children, health professionals must thoroughly assess the child. That is knowing where exactly the pain is, its onset and duration, its severity, and the frequency at which the child feels the pain.

Parents and health professionals can manage the child's pain by skin-to-skin contact with the mother. With this, the child is placed on the mother's exposed chest to create comfort for the child in order to reduce pain.

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The pain of the child can also be managed by using non-nutritive sucking. This involves the insertion of a nonlactating nipple or a pacifier into the infant's mouth to encourage the child's sucking behaviors to decrease cry durations.

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One major thing also done to manage a child's pain is a distraction. This can either be a visual or auditory distraction. The auditory aids include music and lullabies sung by health professionals and parents. Research has shown that music has a significant impact on improving pain in infants. The visual aids used in distracting pain are cartoons, pictures, toys, mirrors, and mobile phones. The child tends to concentrate on these things which end up reducing their pain.

Let's do our best to treat children's pain to avoid severe complications because they are the FUTURE!

Cc: @steemkidss