Neonatal pain during metabolic screening

One of the first painful stimuli to which a healthy newborn is subjected is neonatal screening by heel prick and blood sampling. Traditionally the sensitivity to neonatal pain has tended to be underestimated and the need to apply analgesia techniques to avoid it has not been seen.An experimental study was designed with a sample of 106 newborns and the sample was divided into three groups according to the analgesia received during the procedure and the response to pain was evaluated using a validated scale. The pain produced was significantly greater in the no intervention group compared to the glucose solution or breastfeeding groups.However no statistically significant differences were found between the two analgesic procedures.In view of the results we propose the implementation of these interventions in other painful procedures. Their application would be desirable not only in neonates but also in infants during the first months of life.