Breastfeeding as an analgesic method during vaccinations.

Abstract

Infants undergo painful stings such as intradermal and intramuscular stings during vaccination. Clinical trial have showed analgesic methods to reduce the painful in both infants and kids. There are different types of non-pharmacological interventions which have an analgesic effect in infants during vaccinations such as: breastfeeding, cladding the infants, the skin to skin contact, the use of sweetened substance. A review of the primary and secondary literature was carried out in the database Medline(PubMed). The bibliographic research was focused on the critical reading of the studies of the last ten years. Eight articles, including seven randomized clinical trials and one systematic review have been found. All registered studies report a reduction of the average value of the pain measured through both validated rating scales and through the measurement of the average duration of the cry during and after the vaccination in breastfeed infants. However it hasn't been demonstrated a statistically significant improvement in physiological parameters. It is desirable that the literature produce further studies related to the changes of the vital parameters during the breastfeeding which allow a clear comparison between clinical trials.