JPP Student Journal Club Commentary: Novel Parent Intervention Reduces Vaccine Injection Pain in Toddlers: Potential Mechanisms and Path Forward

The research and management of pediatric pain and distress during vaccine injections have witnessed tremendous improvements in the past decade, with the development of clinical practice guidelines and recommendations being adopted by the World Health Organization (McMurtry et  al., 2016;Taddio et al., 2015). These improvements are particularly important given increasing rates of vaccine hesitancy and increased morbidity, which is, in part, driven by parental concerns about child pain and distress. However, significant research gaps remain, specifically in the areas of nonpharmacological parent-targeted interventions (Taddio et  al., 2013).Pillai Riddell et  al. (2018) conducted the first study to evaluate the effectiveness of a novel parent-targeted pediatric pain management intervention (the ABCD ’s of Pain Management) for 6- and 18-month-old children’s vaccine injections. Through video education, the intervention targeted four aspects of parent behaviors during vaccination: management of parents’ anxiety, deep breathing for parents, using calm and close cuddle, and distracting the chi ld after the peak distress had passed.
Source: Journal of Pediatric Psychology - Category: Pediatrics Source Type: research