Pain Management in Children

PAIN MANAGEMENT IN CHILDREN
Adequate pain management should be viewed as an essential component of compassionate medical care of children. A child's developmental level frames the child's understanding of painful experiences. Cognition of the toddler: has the capacity for basic reasoning; understands object permanence; has the beginnings of memory; the understanding of causality; and begins to play "make believe". Toddlers language: vocabulary of over 20 words and can say two to three-word sentences. A three year old knows about 200 or more words. Cognition of the preschooler: bel…