Pain Management

"Is it going to hurt?" That's one of the most common questions children ask their parents and doctors when they learn they have to receive an operation or procedure.

ColumbiaDoctors pediatric pain management specialists do everything they can, using the latest medicines and techniques, to ease the pain and discomfort of children with acute and chronic illnesses.

Our Team

Our Pediatric Pain Medicine group is a multidisciplinary team with 24 hour a day, seven day a week staffing that will provide highly specialized pain treatment and management of distressing symptoms for children of all ages, from birth through adolescence. Our pain management specialists provide diagnostic and treatment services using a compassionate and holistic, family-centered approach.

Our Methods

We utilize a variety of methods that help us determine if your child is having pain and to assess if it is being adequately treated:

• If your child is verbal we will ask if the pain is “a little bit”, “a lot” or “in between”. Sometimes we will ask your child to point a face in a cartoon that indicates a range of sensations from complete comfort to severe distress. Action figures can sometimes be used to show which body part hurts. Older children can offer a number “from zero to ten” indicating the intensity of pain. Telling us about the quality and pattern of the pain can often help us in both making the correct diagnosis and in therapy.
• Young or non-verbal children can often reveal how much pain they are having simply by our careful observation of their movement or facial expression and there are specific scales that can help us with this measurement.
• We will, of course, also rely on your opinion as a parent and on the opinion other caregivers involved in your child’s care in the assessment of pain and the effectiveness of our treatment.

We are available to consult on your child’s pain management at the request of your child’s physician or surgeon.