Sugar 'comforts babies during immunisations' It appears that
sugar really may help the medicine go down - studies suggest a
few drops can comfort babies who are having their jabs. The
Cochrane team reviewed 14 studies involving more than 1,500
infants going for routine childhood immunisations or a heel-
prick blood test. Babies given a sugary solution to suck as they
were about to be injected cried far less than those given water.
While sugar may pacify, it is unclear if it also relieves pain.
Experts say more research is needed to explore this. End Quote
Dr David Elliman Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health
If you do the usual holding and comforting, I'm not sure how
much sucrose would add” A small study published a couple of
years ago in The Lancet medical journal looked at the responses
of 44 infants given either sugar or water as they had a heel-
prick blood test. The sugar did not appear to make a difference
to pain - all babies similarly grimaced and had comparable
electrical activity measured wi