Effect of Positioning on the Pain Response of Infants Vaccinated with Inactivated Polio and Pentavalent (dtwp-hepatitis B-hemophilus Influenza B) Vaccines

Abstract

Objective – To compare the acute pain response to sequential vaccination in two different positions: holding the baby on the parent’s lap during vaccination injections (cuddle position) and making infants lie supine on the bed during vaccination procedure (bed position) after administration of IPV and pentavalent vaccines.

Material and Methods − A total of 68 infants 34 each in cuddle and bed positions were included in the study. The procedure of injection was video recorded and later analysed by two resident interns for the pain response before and after the procedure using the neonatal infant pain scale (NIPS).

Results − The baseline NIPS scores, median (IQR) was 0 (0-1) in the cuddle position and 0 (0-2) in the bed position. The pain response in both cuddle and bed positions was similar with a final NIPS score, median (IQR), of 7 (7-7).

Conclusion − The parent held ‘cuddle position’ did not benefit the infants in terms of reducing acute pain response to vaccine injections compared to the supine (bed) position on the table.