Management of Acute Pain in Children: Pharmacologic

Continuous Opioid Infusions

For toddlers and children, commonly recommended initial morphine infusion rates are roughly 0.025 mg/kg/hr.³⁹ Due to the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic factors described above, initial infusion rates in newborns are much lower and range from 0.005 to 0.01 mg/kg/hr.⁴⁰ Cardiorespiratory monitoring is required for infants less than 3 months of age and adjustment of these rates should be based on clinical signs of either inadequate pain relief or increased somnolence.