Interventions to Reduce Pain during Vaccination in Infancy

Reducing the pain of childhood vaccination: an evidence-based clinical practice guideline

“…Three RCTs [17][18][19] and one study with quasi-experimental design, 20 including a total of 478 infants (up to 12 months of age), were included in the systematic review. 12 These studies reported less pain for breastfed infants.…”

“…Eleven trials with a total of 1452 infants and children 17,[23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32] were included in the systematic review. 12 A meta-analysis of data from six trials involving single or multiple vaccine injections (n = 665 infants up to 12 months of age) 17,[26][27][28]31,32 showed that sucrose solution with or without non-nutritive sucking reduced acute pain.…”

Minimizing pain during childhood vaccination injections: improving adherence to vaccination schedules

“…Four studies found significant reduction in pain response and crying time with breastfeeding or administering sucrose [39][40][41][42] (see Table 2). Dilli et al 41 compared breastfeeding with no intervention in infants less than 6 months old in lowering vaccination pain.…”

“…Dilli et al 41 compared breastfeeding with no intervention in infants less than 6 months old in lowering vaccination pain. The authors also examined the effectiveness of lidocaine and sucrose administration in children 6 months to 2 years of age using crying time, NIPS, and CHEOPS as measurement tools.…”

“…All three interventions significantly lowered crying time and pain response (P,0.001); however, there was not a significant difference between the lidocaine intervention and sucrose administration. 41 Hatfield 39 examined oral administration of sucrose prior to and after the injection using the University of Wisconsin Children's Hospital pain scale. The control group was given sterile water.…”