Pain Management Specialties and Services

While at Valley Children's, your child will be cared for by a highly skilled, multidisciplinary team of healthcare professionals dedicated to helping him/her get better in the most pain-free way possible. If your child experiences pain, our team can help relieve their discomfort through a variety of methods, including:

Physician-prescribed pain relief medication
Changes in treatment plan
Providing comfort measures
Education for you and your child on ways to decrease and control pain
Environmental changes, such as reducing room noise level and lighting, using pillows to support painful areas, and frequent position changes in bed
Play therapy
Distraction techniques such as breathing exercises, music, talking with your child, watching TV, reading books, and playing video games, which help to divert a child's attention from their pain
Combinations of mind and body activities that alter or suppress painful sensations, such as deep breathing exercises, muscle relaxation, guided imagery, and behavioral modification
Patient-controlled analgesia (PCA), which allows the patient to control the delivery of pain medication given intravenously using a special infusion device. The infusion device has built in safety features to prevent a child from receiving too much medication
Epidural analgesia, which involves a small plastic catheter that is placed in your child's back while he/she is sedated or under general anesthesia. Pain medications can be given through this catheter for several days and it is an effective approach to managing severe pain
Nerve blocks
Acupuncture
Applying heat, cold, splints, exercise, hydrotherapy, and transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS), in which a mild electrical stimulation is delivered through the skin by electrodes placed over the painful area
Reiki - A hands-on touch therapy which restores energy balance promoting reduction of stress, anxiety, nervousness, pain or discomfort
Spiritual support and counseling to help cope with the pain