A Tool to Soothe: Can music help with pain control?

Many parents have seen their child in pain and felt like they couldn’t help enough.

It’s not a great feeling.

A recent study on newborns gives us some hope – and some tools. This study focused on hospital procedures, so maybe that’s the best starting point in thinking about how to help our young kids with anticipated pain.

Many routine procedures in hospitals do cause some pain. Whether it’s a quick poke for an essential blood test, an injection, or one of many life-saving procedures that babies in a NICU undergo, many of these events are hard to avoid. Parents may want to consider the information here if they know their baby will probably experience some discomfort or pain.

What works to soothe babies during painful procedures?

It’s common practice to give babies a small amount of sugar water (sucrose) during potentially painful procedures in a hospital. (How small of an amount? Sometimes a pacifier is just dipped into the sterile sucrose solution and then the baby sucks on it for a few minutes. It’s often less than a few drops).

Obviously, more extensive anesthesia and medication are used for more invasive procedures.

Neither of these things are recommended for routine or minor pain at home. 

However, this research described below found a low risk and cost-effective method that also helped with pain: a lullaby.

New research on music and newborn pain

The study involved 100 babies who needed a heel prick (a common method for getting a small blood sample in a newborn nursery. (See this post for how toddlers may get blood tests).

The researchers rated babies’ pain before, during, and after the procedure. (Yes, there are standardized ways to rate newborn baby pain levels. These involve looking at a baby’s facial expression, crying, how they move their limbs, etc).

All babies received the usual sugar water to help soothe them. Half the babies also had a recorded lullaby playing (for what it’s worth: the album they listened to was called Bedtime Mozart). The other half had a silent ambience.

The results? The babies who had music playing showed lower levels of pain! It truly helped soothe them and helped them recover from the painful procedure.

(The investigators wore noise-canceling headphones so that they did not know which babies were listening to a lullaby during the heel prick). Of note, all babies showed no pain 5 minutes after the heel prick was completed. 

What does this mean?

Although the study was small, I think it’s very promising! It shows a  relatively easy intervention that can help babies during painful experiences.

What does this mean for parents?

This is just one more nugget of information for parents as they figure out how to best care for their individual child. I wanted to write about it here because recorded music is more accessible than ever, and it may make a real difference in helping a child or baby go through a rough experience. 

Maybe the next time any of us are around a struggling baby or child, a little lullaby may be worth a try. 

Or, if we know a baby has plans for a routine or short painful experience in the ER or as part of a routine check up, playing some music may be worth considering. I can’t imagine it being a good fit or solution for every child, but it seems like it’s easy enough to test it out. 

For those of you rolling your eyes at how obvious this seems (of course music helps comfort babies!), now we have some evidence to back up what you already knew. And, if you’re in the position where you work directly with babies, this might be something to discuss with parents if their baby has to undergo something unpleasant.

As kids get older, anything from a skinned knee to a urinary tract infection can cause relatively minor pain. Older kids can usually communicate their needs a bit more than newborns, so a simple conversation may be in order. Would they like to listen to something to help them feel better?

Disclaimer: This contains no medical advice. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this website. Full disclaimer here.

Maya M. Mahmood, D.O., FAAP is a board-certified pediatrician and mom. She is passionate about parents having evidence-based information to help their families be healthier.