We (baby doctors) know babies feel pain as much as any other child or adult, and attempt to treat it appropriately. TOO MUCH pain medication leads to depressed respirations and the need for an endotracheal tube and ventilation-> associated with many more complications. And WE KNOW that anesthesia itself is associated…

Thanks. The GF is a nursing director, she has done both L&D and spent time managing NICUs. When I showed her this piece and asked for her thoughts, she had much the same opinion, especially about anesthesia (a field that 99% of laypeople don’t understand/appreciate— as I learned, it’s <i>nowhere</i> as simple as just…

Yeah, I didn’t even go into the ethics and welfare issues here. These are discussions that we’re having about animals and integrating into legislation in Europe. It seems very wrong for newborns to be treated worse than animals. And I’m a grad student in animal science and animal welfare.

This is what I was thinking: there are competing problems here - even pain that isn’t remembered can cause shock and death. On the other hand, analgesics are almost certainly going to be a problem for a baby’s development - to completely set aside problems of dosage ...

Anesthesia and pain relief are not necessarily the same thing. Anesthesiologists are not the only medical professionals who administer pain relief.

Agreed. Also, the examples of “painful’ procedures are so wide — blood samples aren’t fun, but they hurt for about two seconds at most. I’m not sure painkillers are really required for that.

that’s why anesthesiologists go to school for so long - so they know what they are doing.

I bet there are some parents whose babies have terminal conditions are and suffering quite badly, who would be willing to try an experimental drug trial for painkillers if it had a chance of relieving their baby’s suffering. Just like people with late-stage cancer who try experimental treatments - they’re going to…

It triggered my maternal rage and I was damn near foaming at the mouth. I had to stop reading too.

In Canada infants are given anesthesia. One of my daughters had a double Achilles tendonotomy at 8 weeks old (local freezing, she still screamed like crazy for the smaller preemie twin), and went under fro two hours at 13 months old for an oral surgery. She has zero recollection of either surgery, but pain management…

I’m all for reducing the pain experienced by sentient beings but it has to be balanced against the risks of administering anesthetics.

You make a good point about painkillers possibly being lethal, but saying “they won’t remember it” doesn’t mean a baby’s pain doesn’t matter. If they’re suffering, they’re suffering, and from an ethical standpoint something should be done about it.

Same. I just want to hold my kids right now...

But I wonder what consequences that kind of pain have on the psychological development of babies. Maybe you forget but your unconscious mind don’t.

But they do remember, just not consciously. They will carry around their impressions of their experiences long after the fact. It also affects their brain development— how able they are to cope with the stressors of life later on. It’s not trivial.

Yeah being exposed to a pain killer at such a young age seems like it could potentially cause some other issues. Id like to see some information on that. Intuitively, I would think such a thing might lead to a tolerance of sorts to pain killers.

I’m of two minds here.

Yeah, I got a couple paragraphs, scanned the rest, and “Nope’d!” myself right to the comments. Empathy overload.

I will have to get back to this article. As a parent, this article filled me with the deepest emotional pit and rage...