Sugar eases pain in newborns

Giving newborn babies sugar water during a needle or other painful procedures is known to ease the pain they feel and it seems that sugar has an ongoing calming effect. Researchers from Canada studied the effect of giving sugar water to 240 babies two minutes before all needle procedures performed from birth until the newborn screening test about 24 hours later. All the infants were randomly divided into two groups, one assigned to a sucrose and the other to only plain water (placebo) before starting all needle procedures to determine the effect of sucrose analgesia on infant pain responses during a subsequent care giving procedure. Behaviour of the babies was assessed during diaper change after the needlestick procedure. It was found that babies given sucrose were calmer than those given water, even if sucrose was given an hour beforehand and this benefit of sucrose lasted for at least an hour. The researchers suggest that giving sucrose to babies for a painful care-giving procedure helps babies stay calm for other procedures that are uncomfortable or potentially painful.

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