The Natural Way To Ease Your Childs Pain

Babies require quite a few things the full grown human needs, but in smaller portions or in different wavelengths. Sunlight is a good example, a baby's skin can't take the volume an adult can and you certainly wouldn't want to chance a sunburn. Music, depending on the genre and volume, that would be considered soothing or relaxing by an adult may actually be more than a child can handle.

The Archives of Disease in Childhood suggests the playing music around newborn babies may ease the pain of routine medical procedures. Neonatal units are increasingly using music to calm infants during common painful procedures, even though there is no solid evidence study teams have noted that it appears helpful.

Dr. Manoj Kumar and colleagues from the University of Alberta in Canada systematically reviewed nine randomized controlled trials published between 1989 and 2006 that looked at the value of "newborn music therapy." The analysis included both full-term and preterm infants with lullabies being the most common music selection in the studies. Although definitive conclusions were unable to be reached, researchers said their was a lot of preliminary evidence supporting the "therapeutic benefits of music." One of the "high quality" studies found that playing music during circumcision helped lower infants' heart rate, curb pain and improve oxygen levels. In 3 of the studies that dealt with painful heel prick tests which is a common procedure for taking blood from an infant, the evidence showed that playing lullaby songs appeared to help ease the infants' pain.
Other benefits attributed to the playing of music included: calmer infants, calmer parents, more rapid weight gain among preterm infants and shorter hospital stays. Kumar and his colleagues conclude "There is preliminary evidence to suggest that music may have beneficial effects in terms of pain reduction during painful medical procedures," They also emphasize, however, that more trials are needed to confirm these findings.

A Canadian research group found that pleasure centers in the brain that respond to drug craving are also active when we listen to emotionally powerful music that gives us "chills" or that "shiver-down-the-spine" feeling. They used two separate brain imaging tests. The researchers examined the subjects as they listened to music that gave them chills and to music that did not. A PET scan, showed that the music that caused chills caused a release of dopamine in the reward centers of the brain (mesolimbic striatum). The interesting thing was shown by an MRI on the same subjects which found that the activation of these regions happens both during the experience of chills and while the subjects are anticipating them. Note that music which is merely a sequence of notes arranged in time can have a similar affect in the brain as drugs such as cocaine.

Now that you have scientific proof, sing those lullaby songs to calm babies, to put them to sleep, or when you're spending time with them, it's healthy. The simple lyrics and storyline of lullabies are perfect to rock a child to sleep. So sing or play that lull-a-bye, you have real scientific proof that it's not only good for the baby it also has a calming effect on you.