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Date: | Sat, 31 May 1997 20:25:29 -0700 |
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While reading the letter to the editor from Liz Bushell, I noticed
another listing in the Times of May 29 for a cure for crying babies.
Here's what it said. Where is this Dr. Stuttaford coming from? Is he
widely read in the Times?
>>THREE-MONTH colic, the apparently meaningless but
persistent crying of babies during their first few weeks of life,
was traditionally silenced by giving them gripe water, a
mixture of sugar, alcohol and herbs. I was discouraged from
giving gripe water to my children because of the effect that
any spillage had on the table: it removed the polish. Instead,
my sons were given, with good effect, a sugary
blackcurrant-flavoured drink.
Research published in the Archives of Diseases in
Childhood and Pulse magazine has shown the results of
giving babies with colic those who cried for at least three
hours, three times a week for more than three weeks a 12
per cent sucrose solution. The trial was random,
double-blind and cross-over neither the mother nor the
doctor knew which babies were having the sugary drink
and the effect was checked by the drink being secretly
changed to pure water during the experiment.
All the babies improved with the sucrose, but just over half
relapsed when plain water was substituted. Animal
experiments suggest that this effect of sucrose on a baby's
guts may act by causing a release of endorphins, the natural
opioids that will quieten even the most upset child.
DR THOMAS STUTTAFORD <<<
Donna Hansen
Burnaby, BC
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