Babies, especially newborns and infants in intensive care units, routinely undergo multiple medical procedures, including vaccinations and blood tests. Their pain regulation systems are still immature and they experience pain differently than adults, often more intensely. TASR writes about it according to the euronews website.
Sucrose (sugar) may ease needle stick pain in young children, according to a new study published in the Cochrane Database of Scientific Information on Medicine. “Parents may be surprised to learn that something as simple as a few drops of sugar solution can make a difference in their child’s comfort during blood tests,” said study co-author Ligyana Candidová from the University of Ottawa in Canada.
The authors analyzed 29 studies involving 2,764 children from around the world. In all of them, the children were randomly divided into two or more treatment groups, where the children were given sugar and other methods of pain relief such as pacifiers, breastfeeding and skin-to-skin contact.
Newborns who were given sugar responded less to pain during and shortly after the procedure compared to those who were not given or given water. The authors caution that scientific evidence for the effectiveness of sugar compared to breastfeeding and skin-to-skin care is still limited.
It is generally accepted that recurrent and untreated pain in the early stages of life negatively affects the growth and development of children. However, some newborns spend a longer time in the hospital, either after premature birth or for the treatment of specific diseases. During this time, they are often exposed to needles for blood tests or intravenous fluids and medications.
“Newborns undergo frequent procedures involving the use of needles in the hospital without any pain relief or sedation measures, although older children and adults rarely undergo these procedures without pain management. The bottom line message from our findings is that infants need and should receive pain management prior to a procedure such as a blood draw.” said study lead author Mariana Buenová of the University of Toronto.
She added that a low-cost intervention using sugar has been shown to work within minutes and can be particularly useful when other calming methods are not available. The authors of the study noted that the long-term effects of continuous sucrose use need to be further evaluated.
