AAP: Manage neonates' pain without drugs when possible

New American Academy of Pediatrics policy—which will appear in the February issue of Pediatrics—dictates that health care professionals should strive to manage mild to moderate pain in newborns without administering drugs. This approach might include skin-to-skin contact, swaddling, or massage. Providers could step up treatment to oral sucrose and/or glucose if babies do not respond, before moving on to a pharmacologic regimen that includes opioids or other drugs.