Acute Pain and Children Acute pain is common in children, and each child should be respected as an authority about

the presence and severity of their pain. In the past, treatment of pain in children has not always been optimal. Many common misconceptions about analgesia in infants and children still need to be dispelled. Facts include that children do not experience less pain than adults, neonates feel and remember pain, premature neonates have the physiological pathways and mediators to feel pain. Pain assessment is very important in children of all ages. Even neonates can respond and this can modify their subsequent behaviour. A number of factors affect how a child will show pain, and consequently how that pain can be assessed. These include age and developmental level, family, social and cultural factors, other intercurrent illnesses, and previous pain experience. Children with severe developmental delay can be very difficult to assess for pain, even for their regular carers. Changes from their normal behaviour might be caused by pain. The noncommunicating childrens pain checklist can be used to formally assess their pain. In hospital, pain measurement should be performed and recorded regularly like any other physiological parameter (example: temperature, respiratory rate, heart rate, blood pressure) to assess the efficacy of analgesic regimens. This should be done both at rest and with activities such as physiotherapy.