Abstract Background Quantitative sensory testing (QST) is often used to measure children’s and adults’ detection- and pain thresholds in a quantitative manner. In children especially the Thermal Sensory Analyzer (TSA-II) is often applied to determine thermal detection and pain thresholds. As comparisons between studies are hampered by the different testing protocols used, we aimed to present a standard protocol and reference values for thermal detection- and pain thresholds in children. Methods Our standard testing protocol includes reaction time dependent and independent tests and takes about 14–18 min to complete. Reference values were obtained from a sample of 69 healthy term born children and adolescents with a median age of 11.2 years (range 8.2 to 17.9 years old). Seventy-one children were recruited and data of 28 males and 41 females was obtained correctly. We studied possible age and sex differences. Results This study provides Dutch reference values and presents a standard quantitative sensory ...