from pubmed
would you give artificial sweetener to a newborn, or any child?? I certainly
wouldn't.

Karen Clements
Melb Aust


Artificial sweetener reduces nociceptive reaction in term newborn infants.

Bucher HU, Baumgartner R, Bucher N, Seiler M, Fauchere JC.

Clinic for Neonatology, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University
Hospital, Zurich, Switzerland. [log in to unmask]

BACKGROUND: Sucrose has been shown to have an analgesic effect in preterm
and term neonates. Sucrose, however, has a high osmolarity and may have
deleterious effects in infants with fructose intolerance. Furthermore, it
may favour caries. We therefore investigated the effects of a commercially
available artificial sweetener (10 parts cyclamate and 1 part saccharin),
glycine (sweet amino acid) or breast milk in reducing reaction to pain as
compared with a placebo. SUBJECTS: Eighty healthy term infants, four days
old, with normal birth weight. INTERVENTIONS: The infants were randomly
assigned to one of four groups: 2 ml sweetener, glycine, expressed breast
milk or water were given 2 min before a heel prick for the Guthrie test. The
procedure was filmed with a video camera and analysed by two observers who
did not know which medication the infant had received. RESULTS: Using a
multivariate regression analysis, the following variables had significant
correlation with relative crying time and recovery time: behavioural state
before the intervention, the pricking nurse, and the type of medication.
Relative crying time and recovery time were significantly less in the
sweetener group but not in the glycine and the breast milk group.
CONCLUSIONS: The artificial sweetener used in our study reduces pain
reaction to a heel prick in term neonates, and thus provides an alternative
to sucrose. In contrast, glycine tends to increase pain reaction whereas
breast milk has no effect.

Publication Types:
Clinical Trial
Randomized Controlled Trial

PMID: 10962167 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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