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Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

Wee Care Program: Pain Management

Our goal in the NICU is to alleviate pain and reduce stress for your baby so they can grow with normal development. This may be achieved through a combination of non-pharmacologic and pharmacologic interventions. Not all stress is painful, and not all pain or discomfort requires medication. A variety of developmental care practices and non-pharmacologic methods may be used to alleviate stress and minor painful procedures for your baby.

Developmental Care
The goal of developmental care is to help structure the environment to support your baby's development, reduce stress and enhance self-soothing. Developmentally sensitive interventions will help reduce the negative effects of the environment like noise, lights, etc. This will also help your baby tolerate the necessary procedures that play an important role in treating the condition.

If your baby is experiencing any discomfort or pain while staying in our NICU, it's our standard of care to provide the best developmental supportive interventions to help your baby. These interventions should always be utilized first before giving any pain medication to your baby.

• Reducing light/noise
• Sequencing care interventions to prevent over stimulation
• Nesting to provide boundaries
• Swaddling/containment
• Offering an age-appropriate pacifier to encourage non-nutritive sucking
• Skin-to-skin contact whenever possible
• Parent participation to help provide comfort measures

Kangaroo Care
Is a method of skin-to-skin contact between infants and their parent or designated support person. The adult reclines in a prone position, holding the baby, who is covered with a blanket and hat, on the adult's bare chest. There are many great benefits of skin-to-skin contact with your baby. It's great for infant bonding, lowering oxygen requirements and improving milk production in breastfeeding mothers. Also, babies tolerate their feedings better, which means they will gain weight more quickly and spend less time in the hospital.

Sucrose
Sucrose is sugar water, and has been proven to be very effective in managing a baby's pain when given appropriately. It's also our standard of care for our nurses and doctors to provide your baby with sucrose before, during and after a painful procedure. When given before a painful procedure and then followed with sucking on a pacifier, it functions as an analgesic, which helps your baby's ability to tolerate pain. Babies love the taste. Sucrose also helps distract the baby from discomfort.

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