The PainChek Infant App: Expert Review 2024

When you become a parent, you can't quite believe that this perfect little being is totally in your hands.

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Just walking out of the hospital with them feels almost illegal, and you keep looking back to make sure that yes, this tiny one is all yours (bearing in mind that all you’ve had to look after so far are low-maintenance succulents.)

Because they can’t advocate for themselves, the pressure falls on us. We’re forced to distinguish every kind of nose-scrunch, cry, and flushed cheeks. The meaning of each expression, and the sometimes-subtle (and other times not so subtle) cues our little ones give us. 

But maybe it doesn’t all have to be up to you. 

PainChek Infant is a groundbreaking new app that uses AI for instant pain assessment in infants aged 1-12 months. We’ve had a little play with it and have plenty of thoughts to share.

The PainChek Infant App in-depth review by Kiindred

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The PainChek Infant app supports parents to understand, monitor, and confidently manage their baby’s pain. Parent ‘instincts’ only get us so far – we’re just human. And the anxiety of not knowing what’s wrong with our little ones is a heavy burden to bear- especially when it’s the first one.

This tool helps you confirm if your baby’s in pain, giving you the confidence to care for them when they need it most.

About PainChek

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PainChek first launched in 2016 with a mission to give a voice to those who can’t reliably verbalise their pain, such as people living with dementia. The original PainChek app paved the way. Built from thorough, expert research and innovation, PainChek is the world’s first clinically validated medical device for pain assessment, by using facial analysis to assess facial expressions indicative of pain, as part of a multidimensional assessment of pain.

Now, their new app, PainChek Infant, is helping infants by providing pain assessment support to parents and young families at home.

 

PainChek Infant: Product benefits

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• Measure their pain instantly

I’ve spent so much time trying to get to the bottom of changes in my children’s behaviour, especially in the baby years. The worst was when I’d rule out all the obvious causes – hunger, thirst, nappy change – but something still wasn’t quite right. 

In those moments, I would have really appreciated a tool that helped me understand if the cause may be pain and give me the confidence to treat it. Like a thermometer, but for pain.

Which brings me to PainChek Infant’s groundbreaking feature.

If you suspect your little one is in pain (changes in their behaviour, crying that can’t be comforted, sleep changes, or scrunched expressions), or if your child has had a recent painful procedure such as vaccination and you want to monitor their pain, you can pull out the PainChek Infant app.

In a 3-second scan of the face, PainChek Infant identifies pain-related facial microexpressions in real-time. 

I genuinely found it so easy and intuitive to use – it gives parents a bit of control over times you’d normally feel helpless.

• Manage pain treatments over time

Once you’ve completed the scan, you should have much more clarity and confidence in how to support your child.

So let’s use a real-life scenario. Your little one has just had their 4-month vaccinations, and your GP sends you off with a well-intended comment to “just monitor for pain over the next 72 hours.” What does that mean? You can’t just as well ask them how they’re feeling.

Enter the PainChek Infant app. If your baby is showing signs of irritability or acting strangely (and you’ve ruled out the usual culprits like hunger or a wet nappy) you can use the app to see if they might be in pain.

Say the app confirms that pain is behind these symptoms. Now, you can try what your GP has recommended, including medication and/or at-home relief strategies such as cuddles, comfort, feeding and amping up fluids. 

Then, after 30 minutes, you’d pull out the PainChek Infant app again and do another scan of your baby’s face to track their pain and see if they’ve got some relief.

If yes, you’re on the right track. If there’s still pain, it might be time to try another treatment method.

The PainChek Infant app pain diary allows you to track the effectiveness of pain treatments over time. The diary consolidates all this information to be easily shared with healthcare professionals at your next visit.

• Made with reliability and safety 

PainChek Infant might be new on the scene, but it’s already been tried and tested with in-depth clinical studies and home trials on a range of parents.

The app is also based on clinically validated AI technology (PainChek Adult) trusted by 1,700+ organisations across the world. The AI model has been trained with thousands of relevant images to accurately assess pain. 

Although the app does require access to your device’s camera to identify pain indicators in your child’s face and expressions, the quick scan is not recorded and “no images” leave the device. All of the analysis happens solely on that device and no image of your child is collected.

PainChek Infant: Specs and features

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• Fast AI pain assessment: In just 3 seconds, AI-enabled facial analysis assess pain indicators in infants aged 1-12 months. 

• User-friendly interface: Simple and intuitive interface for ease of use by parents and caregivers.

• Real-time results: Get instantaneous pain level results based on the AI analysis. 

• Secure and private: PainChek doesn’t store or retain any photos or videos of your baby

• Educational support: Provides information on managing and understanding infant pain with tips for first-time parents and caregivers.

 

In conclusion: Why we love it

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From the very start of their life earthside, our child’s pain matters. They feel it just as vividly as we do.

But without the skills to verbalise it, their pain can be overlooked. 

There have been so many times that I spun down Google spirals, tossed and turned into the night, and dialled up every other parent I know just in the hopes of figuring out what’s going on with my little one. 

This app would’ve made all the difference for us, and I know it’ll make all the difference for you.

Register for it now

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The PainChek Infant app is now ready for download for a select group of parents and carers of infants under 12 months (or those currently expecting) through the Early Access Program.

As part of the program, you’ll be one of the first to use PainChek Infant before it launches on the App Store and can deliver feedback that makes PainChek Infant even more useful for families.

There are a few perks for you too (aside from getting to use this awesome tool for free – which won’t always be the case) like:

• Exclusive partner offers
• Insights from experts in pain management
• The opportunity to shape the future of infant pain management and support other parents on their journey

You can register for Early Access HERE.