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