ABSTRACT
Many children who attend the Emergency Department (ED) whether with trauma or illness, are suffering from pain. An important role of the ED is to detect and assess the pain and manage it appropriately to minimise the distress and discomfort of treatment. Each child is different, having his or her own pain threshold and reaction to pain. This is influenced by the child’s developmental stage, culture, gender, personality, family and previous experience of pain. The myth that infants and young children do not suffer pain, or forget it, has been dispelled.
