Douleur et handicap de l'enfant

Since human is man, the question of pain, of physical, moral, psychological ache strikes him: why? What for? In our Christian past secular culture pain was saving. That disease, pain, ache are of natural origin, measurable, curable and should be fought against is a recent idea only worked out since the end of the 19th century. For many years justifications did not lack to ignore child pain and a fortiori newborn pain. The consequence of this pain denial was the achievement of treatments without any precaution, without any anaesthesia. Henceforth handling newborn and premature pain has become unavoidable. If pain has been denied among newborn and even more among the premature, it was (and still is sometimes) also the case in the disabled child. Clinical expressions of this pain are often mislead, misunderstood, ignored among heavy disabled children and especially those with multiple disabilities.