Saturday, February 09, 2008

(A Spoonful of) Sugar

Kids are on my mind this week, I think because of some very special infants I saw in my practice. Two of them were in for 6 month shots. The issue of pain and infancy is one I remember well from residency, when during obstretrics rotation we were required to perform circumcisions. The question then was whether anesthetizing injections decreased pain associated with the procedure. I always anesthetized, and had also heard that some sucrose (table sugar) also helped, so I would let the infant suck a little sugar off of my little finger before the procedure. A familiar sound to any pediatric or family practice office is that of children getting, or preparing to get, immunized. A recent article in pediatrics affirms the helpfulness of sucrose in decreasing pain associated with this procedure.