BMJ 1995;311:747-748 (16 September)

Letters

Cuddle deprivation may have confounded experiment

EDITOR,--While it is laudable that Nora Haouari and colleagues are concerned to minimise the trauma associated with a common neonatal procedure, the starting point for their investigation seems somewhat misplaced.1

Firstly, they report that "parents could be present but did not speak or touch the baby during the procedure." Three minutes is a long time to leave a baby without such comfort. I am surprised that it was considered ethical. My experience of community midwifery is that babies can be very well soothed during painful procedures by being put to the breast or at least being held. It is best if the health worker performing the test is sitting beside the mother or parent so that the health worker is in the right position to gently control foot movements during the procedure.

Secondly, the WHO/Unicef Baby Friendly Initiative, now endorsed in Britain,2 3 clearly states that newborns should not be given . . . [Full text of this article]


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Relevant Article

The analgesic effect of sucrose in full term infants: a randomised controlled trial
Nora Haouari, Christopher Wood, Gillian Griffiths, and Malcolm Levene
BMJ 1995 310: 1498-1500. [Abstract] [Full Text]

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