Sugar for newborns does not relieve pain: study

llg, PhD, RN · Sep 7, 2010

Worth looking into. Thanks for the link.

milksteak · Sep 10, 2010

Wow.. and I thought this was a god send for my son during his procedures.

BittyBabyGrower, MSN, RN · Sep 10, 2010

You have to remember that this is one study with only about 60 patients in it vs the many other ones that have been done.

kitty29 · Sep 14, 2010

I've sent this on to our CNS for a comment...stay tuned.

llg, PhD, RN · Sep 14, 2010

... and the study does not establish that the sucrose doesn't help. It just raises some questions about the validity of the outcome measures used in previous studies. The brain waves used as an outcome measure in this study may not be completely correlate with comfort, either.

kitty29 · Sep 18, 2010

What our CNS had to say:

This study has been discussed on the NIDCAP listserve, especially by the Europeans because the study came out of the UK. What the lay press is not sharing is that the accompanying comment in the Lancet On-line (which is where this article appeared, not in the Lancet print journal), states that they feel the study authors' conclusions are premature due to methodological/testing processes used.

It is interesting how there can be volumes of studies supporting some practice and then people get all excited when a single nay-saying study comes out. Apparently this particular study has stirred a hornet's nest of responses with one on-line group now stating that sucrose causes brain damage.

The question of whether or not oral sucrose actually reduces pain sensation or somehow "simply" limits motor/behavioral activity has always been around and so will continue to be explored, I'm sure. This recent study of 59 term babies looked at if it changed cortical pathways known for pain, but not so closely at if it heightened some other pathways that can cancel/or block pain sensation.

TangoLima · Sep 20, 2010

I will probably get flamed for this....

I will preface this comment by saying I'm not in NICU, so am not very familiar with what procedures would sugar alone be used as analgesia. For a simple heel stick, I would say that it's over really fast, so perhaps no analgesia is needed. But for other invasive procedures, such as circumcision, I think it is ludicrous to think that sugar = pain relief. There are too many other modern options for pain control to rely on something that has questionable efficacy. EMLA cream anybody?

BittyBabyGrower, MSN, RN · Sep 20, 2010

There are other threads on circ....it is standard of care to give a block or emla before. We do NOT just use sugar.

kitty29 · Sep 23, 2010

I will probably get flamed for this....
I will preface this comment by saying I'm not in NICU, so am not very familiar with what procedures would sugar alone be used as analgesia. For a simple heel stick, I would say that it's over really fast, so perhaps no analgesia is needed. But for other invasive procedures, such as circumcision, I think it is ludicrous to think that sugar = pain relief. There are too many other modern options for pain control to rely on something that has questionable efficacy. EMLA cream anybody?

I won't flame you...but your inexperience in NICU is very apparent in your responce...sweeties is used for the lesser types of proceedures (heal stick, placing ng tubes, peripheral IV placement)...the other types of proceedures we use appropriate "moderan options". Actually Sweeties is cuting edge...or rather new. So hopefully you've learned something today!

Ginapixi, BSN, RN · Nov 2, 2010

Back to square one!
Contrary to international guidelines, sugar given to newborn babies does not ease pain, according to a study published on Thursday by The Lancet.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100901/hl_afp/healthbabiessugar_20100901230509

FYI this article does not come up any longer!

on a personal note: just having experienced our own baby treated with "toot sweet" for IV stick: unless some one keeps "feeding" it it did not seem to last, especially when the first stick did not work and they tried a second time;