According to research, premature babies are more sensitive to pain than other people as newborns and later in life.

Experts warn that undergoing painful treatments while young could increase the problem. Tests showed that premature infants feel pain more acutely than healthy newborns. Around 60,000 babies are born premature, before 37 weeks, in Britain every year.

Many will have to spend weeks in intensive care undergoing painful treatments such as injections, tube feeding and blood tests before they can be allowed home.

A new study of brain scans of infants who underwent a routine heel lancing to draw blood samples shows that those who were born premature felt more pain than full-term babies.

But there was no difference when both sets of babies were gently touched on the heel.

This suggests that premature babies are particularly sensitive only to pain, a crucial finding as the sense of touch is triggered by being held or cuddled by their parents – an experience many babies find soothing.

The study supports previous evidence that children born prematurely are more sensitive to pain in later years.

Dr Rebeccah Slater, from University College London, who led the latest research, said: “Our study shows that being born prematurely and undergoing intensive care affects pain processing in the infant brain.

“These observations may underlie the differences in pain sensitivity reported in older ex-preterm children.

“Our ability to measures brain responses to painful events will lead to a better and more informed approach to the administration of analgesia, and enable us to define optimal ways of providing pain relief in this vulnerable population.”