'Tetanalgesia': did you know that breastfeeding calms children's pain? 2026

Let's put ourselves in situation. The first year of a baby's life through a t-shirt or a comfort object while sleeping.

Now, the World Health Organization itself talks about the moment of vaccinations: "it is a common scene in health centers around the world: between tears and sobs, and hugging their mothers or caregivers, children muster up the courage to receive life-saving vaccines. However, no parent or health professional likes to see a child suffer. We all want children to feel calm when we have to vaccinate them." And why wait for the consultation to come out? For the first time, the WHO prepares a document in which they affirm that it is convenient to breastfeed infants during vaccination.

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This is called "tetanalgesia", that is, the union of the words "teta" and "analgesia". The Spanish Pediatric Association defines it as "a term created, half jokingly, half seriously, to designate one of the effects of natural breastfeeding and its application as a measure of non-pharmacological analgesia (without medications)."

Breastfeeding to calm the baby's crying is not new

This is a concept defended by many pediatricians and many mothers who have been able to verify it. It involves placing it on the baby's chest before performing a puncture or a painful technique such as, for example, using milk itself, which causes a reduction in pain.

It is something as simple as taking advantage of the pain-relieving and comforting effect of breastfeeding, when painful medical tests or maneuvers are performed on babies, such as the heel test in newborns, vaccinations, blood draws for analysis, etc.

Soothe baby's pain with the breast

The dr. MacDonald points out that “pain is common to all the reasons that families may have who hesitate to vaccinate their children, and it can add to misgivings about the safety of vaccines and geographic barriers and cause them to give up vaccination.” "Vaccination must be a more pleasant intervention for everyone, and we must work to achieve this."

For these reasons, a WHO strategic advisory group on immunization (SAGE) studied the possibility of adapting the guidelines to reduce the pain and fear caused by vaccination. Based on the exhaustive examination it published the following document:

Specific measures to relieve pain in infants

Dr. Duclos believes that these recommendations will be good news for parents and caregivers, patients and health professionals: "When parents know what they can do to comfort their child before and during vaccination, doubts are dispelled." This means that pain should not be an excuse for not vaccinating children.