Sugar helps in relieving babies' vaccination pain

A spoonful of sugar can work as a pain reliever in the routine immunization of babies. Most babies experience pain and discomfort at the time of their routine immunization. It is believed that the analgesic properties of oral sucrose can help in relieving this pain. Giving infants a small dose of a sugar solution just before they get injections can make this pain more tolerable. To test the efficacy of oral sucrose in decreasing pain resulting from immunization in babies, researchers from the Pennsylvania State University School of Nursing in University Park gave sugar solution to 38 infants and plain water to 45 infants before they were to get a series of injections. The first, second and third injections were administered at 2 minutes, 5 minutes, and 7 minutes after the solutions were given. To assess the occurrence of pain in babies, the investigators used a validated composite pain scale that measured crying, facial expression, behaviour, body movement and sleep. The scale goes from 0 to 5, with higher scores representing greater pain. Pain was assessed immediately after each injection, and at 9 minutes. The results showed that oral sucrose can be an effective, easy-to-administer, short-acting analgesic for use during routine immunizations. It was found that the scores linked to pain ranged from 1.19 to 3.80 immediately after each injection in the group given the sugar solution, versus 3.02 to 4.81 in the group given water. At the 9-minute assessment, mean scores were 0.59 and 2.75, respectively. Thus, along with other pain reduction and comforting measures like feeding, distraction and holding, giving sugar can help in relieving pain in babies.