Soothing Pain-Elicited Distress in Infants with Swaddling and Pacifiers

The effectiveness of pacifiers and swaddling in reducing pain-induced distress was compared in 2-week-old infants who underwent heel-sticks and 2-month-old infants who received injections. Crying, state, and heart rate were measured on 32 infants at each age during baseline, the stress of heel-stick...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Child development 1989-08, Vol.60 (4), p.781-792
Main Author: Campos, Rosemary Gates
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Babies
Biological and medical sciences
Birth order
Caregivers
Child development
Crying
Developmental psychology
Emotions
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Heart Rate
Humans
Immunization
Infancy
Infant
Infant Care
Infant, Newborn
Infants
Medical research
Mental stimulation
Newborns
Pacifiers
Pain - prevention & control
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Sleep
Stress, Physiological - prevention & control
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Summary:The effectiveness of pacifiers and swaddling in reducing pain-induced distress was compared in 2-week-old infants who underwent heel-sticks and 2-month-old infants who received injections. Crying, state, and heart rate were measured on 32 infants at each age during baseline, the stress of heel-stick or injection, and during 3-min soothing intervention and postintervention periods. At 2 weeks, infants' HR levels and crying declined significantly more rapidly in the pacifier than in the swaddling condition. At 2 months, both conditions produced similar rates of decline in HR and crying. At both ages, infants in the pacifier group spent significantly more time in an alert state than did swaddled infants. Following termination of the intervention at both ages, HR and crying tended to rebound more in the pacifier than in the swaddling group. Swaddling and pacifiers thus reduce pain-elicited distress differently.
ISSN:0009-3920
1467-8624
DOI:10.2307/1131018