#ItDoesntHaveToHurt is an initiative in partnership with Erica Ehm’s YummyMummyClub.ca (YMC), to use social media to make sure research evidence about children’s pain management gets directly into the hands of parents who can use it. This work is primarily funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) through Knowledge to Action grant. The initiative spans 12-months (we launched in September 2015) of targeted sharing and discussion of content about children’s pain through blogs, videos, Twitter parties, Facebook polls, and social media images, all posted and promoted on the YMC website and social media. YMC has an online reach of over 5 million people per month. We will be covering a range of topics in children’s pain, including both acute and chronic pain, from newborns to adolescents.
Links to the #ItDoesntHaveToHurt content published to date are as follows:
Blogs
- Sept 7: Science Proves You’re Right To Question Your Doctor by Erica Ehm (@YummyMummyClub)
- Sept 2: How Our Family Motto Became “We Can Make Anything Worse” by Jeni Marinucci (@highlyirritable)
- July 29: Life Lessons for Everyone from a Brave Girl Who Has Arthritis by Chloe Girvan (@Mom_interrupted)
- June 10: Welcome to Womanhood: Pass the Pain Relievers by Jeni Marinucci (@highlyirritable)
- May 11: Growing Pains: Real? Or Not Real? by Dr. Kim Foster (@DrKimFoster)
- April 27: Parents of Children with Autism: How to Deal with Pain Management by Carl Bainbridge (@aparentsprspctv)
- Feb 29: This Is How to Tell How Much Pain Your Kid Is Feeling by Natalie Romero (@mummymadness2)
- Feb 17: How to Prepare for & Manage Your Kid’s Post-Surgery Pain by Candace Derickx (@candace_dx)
- Feb 1: Puzzling Pain In Your Kid: How to Identify It and Get Help by Chloe Girvan (@Mom_interrupted)
- Nov 12: How You Can Help Reduce Your Kids’ Immunization Pain by Andrea Nair (@andreanair)
- Oct 13: Stomach Aches & Headaches: How to Help Kids Cope with Pain by Dr. Kim Foster (@DrKimFoster)
- Sept 21: Why Aren’t Kids Getting Proper Help for Their Pain? by Dr. Christine Chambers (@drcchambers)
Videos
- Aug 25: What This Mom Learned about Emergency Room Pain Management by Nicole King
- May 25: Why Didn’t Doctors Believe This Family? by Gayle Grossman-Bly (@NMPSRoom106)
- Jan 18: How a Bikini Wax Inspired a Mom to Help Her Daughter’s Pain by Lisa Thornbury (@LisaThornbury)
- [Blog] Jan 22: Would You Censor This Video? by Erica Ehm (@YummyMummyClub)
- Nov 16: 3 Ways to Instantly Relieve your Baby’s Pain featuring Jack Hourigan (@jackhourigan)
Social Media Images
- Sept 15: Social Media Image Tip 12 (My mom is brave)
- Aug 9: Social Media Image Tip 11 (Distraction)
- Aug 3: Social Media Image Tip 10 (Doctor visit cheat sheet)
- June 2: Social Media Image Tip 9 (Growing pain)
- May 19: Social Media Image Tip 8 (Parents know best)
- Feb 29: Social Media Image Tip 7 (Less pain = quicker recovery)
- Feb 22: Social Media Image Tip 6 (How do you know when your kids are in pain when they don’t even understand the meaning of the word?)
- Feb 15: Social Media Image Tip 5 (Pain measurement)
- Feb 8: Social Media Image Tip 4 (Pain affects brain development)
- Nov 10: Social Media Image Tip 3 (Breastfeeding for needles)
- Oct 28: Social Media Image Tip 2 (Distraction for needles)
- Sept 30: Social Media Image Tip 1 (Yoga and relaxation)
Facebook Polls
- Sept 12: Facebook Poll w/Giveaway 9 (What did you learn through #ItDoesntHaveToHurt)
- Aug 18: Facebook Poll w/Giveaway 8 (Share your tips that have increased communication with your family health care providers and helped you work together)
- June 21: Facebook Poll w/Giveaway 7 (What barrier or challenge have you faced when trying to prevent or reduce pain for your child?)
- May 2: Facebook Poll w/Giveaway 6 (What do you do when you think your baby has teething pain?)
- Feb 25: Facebook Poll w/Giveaway 5 (What do you think doctors and hospitals should provide to parents to help manage their child’s post-op pain at home?)
- Feb 10: Facebook Poll w/Giveaway 4 (On a scale of 1-5, indicate how you feel about this statement and why: I am confident that I can recognize signs of pain in my child)
- Jan 26: Facebook Poll w/Giveaway 3 (What strategies have you used to reduce the pain of needles for your kids and which methods mentioned in the video will you use?)
- Nov 26: Facebook Poll w/ Giveaway 2 (What strategies have you used before to manage your baby’s pain and what new strategy will you use in future?)
- Oct 20: Facebook Poll w/ Giveaway 1 (What strategies do you use when your child has a stomachache or headache?)
Twitter Parties
- Sept 15: Twitter Party 2 Storify (pdf)
- Mar 1: Twitter Party 1 Storify (pdf)
To view the Canadian Association of Paediatric Health Centres (CAPHC) blog on pain management in children over the last 50 years, and how it’s time to bust out of our silos, click here.
To view a video about the #ItDoesntHaveToHurt initiative and the Twitter Canada event, click here.
To view the report of the “It Doesn’t Have To Hurt” Twitter Canada event, click here.
To view the “It Doesn’t Have To Hurt launch video, click here.
To view the report of the “It Doesn’t Have To Hurt” launch event, click here.
To view the pdf of the Storify summarizing highlights and tweets from the “It Doesn’t Have to Hurt” launch event held on September 21st, 2015, click here.
We are very grateful to the IWK Health Centre who funded an extension of the #ItDoesntHaveToHurt initiative. The following content was created as part of the extension program:
Blogs
- October 12: The One Website Anyone With Kids Should Be Bookmarking by Candace Derickx
- September 13: When it’s Time to Get Creative with Pain Management for Kids…and when it’s not by Suzanne Rudge
- August 28: What Not to Do When Your Child Has a Fear of Needles by Sharon DeVellis
- July 31: Identifying Pain When Anxiety is Present by Ashley MacInnis
- July 13: How Your Own Fear of Needles is Impacting Your Kid’s Health by Chloe Girvan
Video
Social Media Images
- November 5: Social Media Image Tip 4 (Everyone feels pain differently but that doesn’t make it less real)
- October 3: Social Media Image Tip 3 (A spoonful of sugar isn’t the only way to help)
- August 15: Social Media Image Tip 2 (Fear of needles starts in childhood)
- August 28: Social Media Image Tip 1 (Pain isn’t pretend)
Twitter Party
To see more visit our itdoesnthavetohurt.ca website.
To view free promotional materials you can download and share related to the “It Doesn’t Have to Hurt” initiative, click here.
To read news and media stories related to the initiative, click here.
To view all the It Doesn’t Have to Hurt content on YummyMummyClub.ca, click here.