Helping Your Child Cope With Pain

Signs of Pain
Coping Strategies

Physical pain is an unpleasant feeling that comes in varying degrees with physical injury or illness. Children as young as three can identify the intensity of their pain.

Signs of Pain

Typical signs of pain in infants and children include:

• crying

• irritability

There are various ways to measure pain in children, including what a child says, what a child is doing, and how the child's body is reacting.

Since you know your child best, compare what you recognize to be normal behavior with changes in eating, sleeping, moving, and crying. For older children, asking them to point to where it hurts or to describe the pain is often reliable. Always consult with your physician about the normal range of pain related to your child's specific physical injury or illness.

Coping Strategies

There are various ways you can help your child cope with pain. Some strategies you can use are holding, comforting, and distracting your child. Be honest with your child about what will hurt and how long the pain will last. Using honest, yet simple language helps children learn to trust you and their health care team. Also, give children choices whenever possible so that they feel a sense of control over their environment. Encourage your child to ask questions and express their feelings about their pain or illness. Let your child know that it is okay to cry and be upset. Listen to your child's concerns and offer them strategies for coping with pain and stress:

Comfort your child. Hold or rock your child if possible--speaking or singing softly to your child and stroking or holding your child's hand also provides comfort. A favorite toy or blanket from home may help your child feel secure.

Deep breathing can help reduce pain and gain self control. Teach this by asking the child to breathe in a big breath and release slowly. While they are releasing the air, imagine letting go of the tense feelings with each breath. A straw can be used for children who have a difficult time taking a deep breath. Bubbles and pinwheels are other tools that can be used to help children with deep breathing. With older children or teens, you can teach them to imagine breathing in all of their negative emotions and pain, hold for a few seconds and then slowly exhale through their nose. This helps children gain focus and control.

Distraction is a great way to help children of all ages to focus away from their pain. Some useful tools that can be used for distraction are: music, pop-up books, treasure hunt books, magic wands, 3-D books, and movies.

Relaxation is very useful for children of all ages. Music is a very common way to assist children in relaxation. Offering choices of the type of music they enjoy most helps with this technique. Children can also relax their bodies as they are relaxing their minds by gradually tightening and loosening their muscles from head to toe to promote a relaxed state.

Guided Imagery can be used by talking about a favorite show or past event. This can help children relax and focus. Creating or reading a story helps children use their imagination to focus on something besides their pain. Children can also close their eyes and think of a time or place when they were doing something that they enjoyed. Encourage children to think of details surrounding theplace or event to foster their imagination.

Play is a vital part of every child's life, even when they are in pain. Play helps children cope and learn from their environment. Giving an opportunity to play after or during a stressful event helps reduce stress and anxiety and also provides a safe outlet for expression of children's emotions. In addition, play can be adapted to fit children with various physical injuries or diseases.

Remember, there are many ways to help your child cope with pain, and any of these strategies can be adapted to better fit your child's needs.