Sweetness and sucking have analgesic effect in babies

Treating pain in the newborn is essential for ethical reasons and because pain can lead to decreased oxygenation, haemodynamic instability, or increased intracranial pressure. Simple interventions such as sweet oral solutions or sucking a pacifier can reduce pain in neonates during painful minor procedures. On p 1393 Carbajal et al report the results of a comparison of the analgesic effects of these two simple interventions during venepuncture in neonates by using a behavioural pain scale. They found that the non-nutritive sucking of a pacifier was more effective than the oral administration of 30% glucose or 30% sucrose. A 30% glucose solution, which is readily available in any hospital, showed at least the same analgesic effect as a 30% sucrose solution. A synergistic analgesic effect was observed for sucrose and pacifiers. These simple and safe interventions should be widely used for minor procedures in neonates.

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    StumbleUpon    Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Article

Randomised trial of analgesic effects of sucrose, glucose, and pacifiers in term neonates

R Carbajal, X Chauvet, S Couderc, and M Olivier-Martin
BMJ 1999 319: 1393-1397. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]