Gently stroking babies before medical procedures may reduce pain

Researchers have found that gently stroking a baby seems to reduce activity in the infant brain associated with painful experiences. The results, published in the journal Current Biology , suggest that lightly brushing an infant at a speed of approximately 3cm per second could provide effective pain relief before clinically necessary medical procedures. 'Parents intuitively stroke their babies at this optimal velocity,' says senior author Rebeccah Slater, professor of paediatric science at the University of Oxford, who worked alongside collaborators from Liverpool John Moores University. 'If we can better understand the neurobiological underpinnings of techniques like infant massage, we can improve the advice we give to parents on how to comfort their babies.' Slater and her team measured newborns' pain responses to medically necessary blood tests by observing their behaviour and detecting their brain activity using electroencephalography (EEG), a technique that measures tiny bursts of electrical activity from the surface of the brain. For half of the babies, a scientist on Slater's team stroked their skin gently with a soft brush right before the blood test. Slater's previous work showed that EEG activity increases in the infant brain immediately after a blood test. This pattern of pain-related activity can be lowered by interventions, such as the application of a local anaesthetic prior to the procedure.