Comfort Tips

• Environmental Measures
• Positioning
• Distraction
• Language

Distraction

What you don't notice may not hurt.

Give patients something else to focus on. When the distraction involves deep breathing (such as blowing bubbles or singing), it may be even more effective. Just be sure it is age-appropriate, so the child stays engaged. Bonus: Parents may be distracted too.

Excerpted from Ellis and Zempsky et al, 2004, and Ellis et al, 2004.^8,11

While the degree of benefit will vary from child to child, distraction techniques will reduce the amount of observed distress behavior for most children. However, distraction techniques did not consistently affect self-reported pain.¹²