Abstract Objective: Our study aimed to compare the impact of breastfeeding on pain during immunization and assess the Neonatal Infant Pain Scale (NIPS) score postimmunization in breastfed versus non-breastfed infants. Methodology: A prospective, open label, randomized control trial was conducted at a tertiary care hospital involving 102 exclusively breastfed mother–infant dyads aged 6 weeks to 6 months. Baseline demographic details, including maternal age, infant age, gender, birth weight, and gestational age, were recorded and participants were randomly assigned to an intervention group (infants who are breastfed 5 min before vaccination ) or control group (infants not breastfed for at least 30 min before vaccination).Pain was assessed primarily using the NIPS score at 1 min post-injection, cry duration at 1 and 5 min post-injection, and heart rate (HR) and oxygen saturation (SpO₂) at baseline and 1 min post-vaccination. Results: Both groups were comparable in demographic data ( P >0.05) (mean maternal age - 24.4 vs 23.7 yrs, mean infant age – 75 vs 76.7 days, mean birth weight – 2.93 vs 2.80 kg, mean gestational age 38.3 vs 38.5 weeks, and equitable gender distribution). The intervention group had a significantly lower mean NIPS score at 1 min postvaccination (4 ± 1 vs. 6 ± 0.7, P 0.05). Relaxed arm and leg positions were more frequent in the breastfed group (49.01% vs. 9.80%, P 0.05). Conclusion: Breastfeeding is a simple and effective intervention for reducing pain and cry duration after immunization, making it a valuable strategy in clinical practice for managing pain in infants.
Rajendra et al. (Sat,) studied this question.
Synapse has enriched 5 closely related papers on similar clinical questions. Consider them for comparative context: