Sugar water reduces pain associated with infant shots

The 2008 recommended immunization schedule calls for infants and toddlers to receive as many as 24 shots in the first two years of life and as many as five shots in one visit. Studies have shown that some parents are reluctant to have their children immunized because they fear their children will experience significant pain during and after the injections.

A Penn State Hershey-led study recently found that giving oral sucrose (sugar water) just before regular shots can help reduce pain responses in 2- and 4-month-old children. The finding, detailed in the current issue of Pediatrics, has broad implications when considering recent data suggesting that exposure to repeated or severe pain in early life can subsequently affect development of the central nervous system and possibly have long-lasting effects on neurologic function and behavior.

In the Penn State study, 100 infants receiving routine immunizations received either a weight-controlled amount of sugar water or a placebo.

The infants were observed for pain responses such as crying, facial expression and body posture. Pain response measurements were taken immediately after each shot. The group receiving sugar water had lower pain scores, and it took less time for them to return to normal than those in the control group. Over the course of nine minutes, the sugar water group had an average of 78 percent lower pain scores than the control group. The authors conclude that oral sucrose is an inexpensive, short-acting, non-sedating, easily administered method of reducing pain for infants undergoing minor invasive procedures.

"Efforts to decrease parental concerns about the amount of pain their child experiences during routine immunizations may encourage parents to schedule their child's immunizations, thereby preventing a resurgence of vaccine preventable diseases," said Linda Hatfield, lead author of the sugar water study. "Our results provide practitioners with evidence of one method to provide infants comfort during painful experiences."

Medical staff can easily administer sugar water to infants with no additional training, and the treatment presents no additional risk to the children. Although the sugar water did not completely eliminate pain during the immunization process, Hatfield and her team suggest that other measures -- acetaminophen, distraction, holding, feeding -- in conjunction with sugar water may provide additional comfort.

Sugar water has been studied for use as a pain relief and comforting measure in preterm infants. The Penn State Hershey study is the first to compare a controlled dosage of sugar water as a comforting measure to full-term babies during routine, follow-up procedures and care.