Children's pain memories are a powerful mechanism underlying subsequent pain experiences. Pain is ubiquitous in childhood. Healthy children who are compliant with medical care undergo up to 20 painful procedures by the age of 5. Moreover, millions of children undergo surgery (e.g., tonsillectomies) each year, which is commonly linked to pain and distress. Pain from, and fear of, medical experiences are neither short lasting or benign. Poorly managed pain can result in negatively biased pain memories, fears, and for some children, phobias that persist into adulthood. We have demonstrated that children's pain memories are a more important predictor of subsequent pain than their initial experience of pain itself. Indeed, children's pain memories fully mediated the relation between an initial and a subsequent laboratory pain experience. Our most recent data indicates that children's pain memories 2 months after surgery predict higher levels of post-surgical pain 4-6 months later.