Assessing Pain in Infants

I’m usually very skeptical of any parents who say they know exactly what their baby wants by just listening to their cries. All the more because sometimes I can’t tell the difference between my baby’s fussing and cooing. Really, the only way I have any idea of why he’s crying is because his schedule says approximately when he should be hungry or sleepy or whatever.

To help us “baby-illiterates” and possibly those in the medical profession, a facial recognition program is being developed by scientists at Missouri State University that will supposedly allow you to interpret facial expressions of infants. So far, it’s been shown to be better than 90% accurate in differentiating facial expressions of babies receiving “heel pricks” compared to those receiving a gentle blowing on the face (wow, a tough one). Not to brag, but personally, I can interpret at least three expressions: a smile, frown, and that scrunchy face he makes right before he explodes (seemingly always in the middle of a diaper change) which leaves you with that helpless torn feeling like someone threw a live grenade at your feet. You don’t know whether to reach for a new diaper to cover him up or just dive for cover.

What really blew me away though was, as recent as 10 years ago, it was believed that babies did not have mature enough nervous system to experience pain. Therefore, infants were allowed to undergo surgery without any form of anesthetic. Can you imagine?!
In any case, the software itself is in its infant stage and will likely takes years before we’d see it in a clinical setting. But it’s definitely an interesting concept and worth a read.