Nursery World - Health & Well-Being

Understanding how children express pain, and knowing what to do about it, are vital, explains Meredith Jones Russell

Pain is a universal sensation, but one that can be difficult for babies and children to articulate, leading to worry and panic on the part of the adults who care for them, or even the possibility of overlooking something more serious.

Pain that goes unaddressed not only prolongs a child’s physical suffering but can make them scared and even cause changes in the brain, which make future pain worse.

Kenneth Craig, professor emeritus of psychology at the University of British Columbia and director of the BC Pain Research Network, explains, ‘Maybe 30 years ago, we had almost total insensitivity to infants’ experience of pain. Even if we accepted that they felt it, we thought they wouldn’t remember it and it wouldn’t have a long-term effect.

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