Pain Tolerance in Newborn Babies

Many think that newborns don't feel pain the same way adults do, but this assumption is false. Unfortunately, newborn infants often lack proper pain management in today's medical arena, but easing pain for newborn infants can have long-term mental benefits.

Myelin

• Myelin is the pain-conducting substance that coats our nerve fibers, but infants' nerve fibers aren't completely coated with myelin yet. This lack of myelin was thought to endow newborn infants with a high pain tolerance, but newborns exhibit an enormous physical response to pain.

Pain memory

• Not only do newborn infants feel pain, according to Pediatrics for Parents, they have a long-term memory of previous pain. Infants that have undergone circumcision with anesthesia exhibit less pain behavior during immunization shots six months later when compared to newborns that had the same procedure without anesthesia.

Light pain relief

• Physicians want to limit a newborn's exposure to the side effects of pain medication, and so they usually limit prescribing it. On the other hand, acetaminophen has minor gastrointestinal side effects and is incredibly effective for treating pain in infants.

Heavy pain relief

• Newborns exhibit a measurable metabolic and cardiovascular response to pain. During more invasive procedures such as surgery, this pain stress response is mediated by opiates. According to Pediatrics for Parents, maintaining opiates after pediatric surgery ensures a speedy recover and a lack of complications.

Pain response or distress

• A newborn infant's pain response often shows as distress, but this may derive from simple discomfort and over-stimulation. Swaddling, rocking the baby and providing a pacifier can relieve distress.