Pediatric pain guide for caregivers: Comfort approaches

Learn how we will promote your child's comfort at every clinical encounter with our Comfort PACT protocol.

Our protocol has five key approaches:

• Preparation: When you understand what is happening, you may experience less stress. Our handout, Help your child manage medical & surgical procedures, will help you make a coping plan with your child.
• Communication: What you say, and how you say it, can affect your child's comfort. Consider your tone of voice, volume, and body language.
• Comfort positions: A secure hugging hold can reduce stress and improve safety in procedures. Our animal friends show some examples in our Paw-sitions for comfort handout.
• Alternate focus (distraction): You may feel less pain if you focus on a task or activity during a procedure. Our handout, Alternate focus (distraction): My plan for medical procedures, explains how. It also includes a distraction plan for children and teenagers. 
• Medication: Medication can work with these approaches to increase comfort and reduce pain. 

Or, view our one-page summary of how and why we promote comfort.

You can help your child by using the Comfort Protocol too.

• Prepare your child for the procedure
• Communicate clearly and calmly.
• Use a comfort hold.
• Choose a distraction with your child before the procedure. You may want to bring a device or toy from home. 
• Use medication when needed, like topical anesthetic, or sucrose (for babies up to 1 year). You can learn more under the Medication tab.

Learn how you can partner with your healthcare team, and apply the Comfort Protocol, with this guide from our ChildKind Patient Advisory Group.

If your baby is coming in for a minor procedure, you can use this tool to choose the best comfort measures for your baby.

Our Child Life Specialists can also help with your child's comfort.