How do you teach a child to feel pain?

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My son has a high pain tolerance/threshold to the point where he has neglected telling me about things that he had to go to emergency for. When he was younger he would fight going, now at least he will come with me willingly, but he still does not understand how to judge when something "annoys" him it might be more and it could require medical attention.

You can't teach a person to feel pain. You could, however, tell him to report all bruises, cuts, burns, etc. to you. Then you can decide which ones warrant treatment.

I read that there is a really rare disorder that makes a person unable to feel physical pain at all. They can be taught not to do things that will injure them (like don't put your hand in boiling water because it will damage your skin and muscle tissue) and report any injuries, but even if they are intellectually aware, it does not come naturally to them.

I seem to be hypersensitive to pain. Especially if I don't know exactly what is causing the pain. I had to get all kinds of surgery on my ears when I was younger, so a twinge could be the start of something HORRIBLE.

I understand the need for reporting things to me and such and he does now also. I guess it just worries me when he grows up if he will take the appropriate steps to get help on his own. Right now its not so much of an issue because he is with me, but when he grows up it could be if he does not learn to realize what is happening to him.

I don't think you can teach him to feel pain.

Instead, I recommend teaching him that just because it doesn't hurt doesn't mean there isn't something injured, and to notice other signs of injury (eg marks, body part not working well, strange sensations) and potential causes of injury (eg falling, getting hit by something) and report them to adults. And until he's able to manage this himself, make a regular habit of checking him over for injuries every day. (This is something people with spinal cord injuries learn to do, because they can't feel pain below the point of injury.)

You can't, feeling pain isn't a skill, it's internal.

You can, however, teach him how to distinguish between a 'meh' injury and a 'let the doctors look at it' injury.
I don't really know how to myself, but i'm lucky enough that my pain tolerance is such that 'i still feel it after 5 minutes' warrants a trip to the doctor. It still doesn't hurt, but i feel the tingling of the hit/bruise/cut. I guess i can call that "pain", for intents and purposes, but it really isn't.


for the record: congenital analgesia (wiki link) is the condition mentioned a few times. That one is a dangerous one indeed, but as long as you feel bruises, there isn't a problem