• Anna Taddio, Tommy Ho, Charmy Vyas, Suganthan Thivakaran, Ali Jamal, Andrew F Ilersich, Mary-Ellen Hogan, and Vibhuti Shah.
• University of Toronto, ON, Canada The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON, Canada anna.taddio@utoronto.ca.
• Clin Pediatr (Phila). 2014 Jun 1; 53 (7): 639-44.

BackgroundClinician-led tactile stimulation (rubbing the skin adjacent to the injection site or applying pressure) has been demonstrated to reduce pain in children and adults undergoing vaccination.ObjectiveTo evaluate the analgesic effectiveness of clinician-led tactile stimulation in infants undergoing vaccination.MethodsThis was a partially blinded randomized controlled trial that included infants undergoing vaccination in a private clinic in Toronto. Infants were randomly allocated to tactile stimulation or no tactile stimulation immediately prior to, during, and after vaccination. The primary outcome was infant pain, assessed using a validated observational measure, the Modified Behavioral Pain Scale (MBPS; range = 0-10).ResultsAltogether, 121 infants participated (n = 62 tactile stimulation; n = 59 control); demographics did not differ (P > .05) between groups. MBPS scores did not differ between groups: mean = 7.2 (standard deviation = 2.4) versus 7.6 (1.9); P = .245.ConclusionTactile stimulation cannot be recommended as a strategy to reduce vaccination pain in infants because of insufficient evidence of a benefit.© The Author(s) 2014.

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