Painful Procedures Are Getting Sweeter

Abstract

During a typical stay in the hospital and through the infants first year of life, painful procedures will occur for most infants on a regular basis. The aim of this poster project is to learn if administering oral glucose to infants (age below 1 year) during invasive procedures such as heel sticks, immunizations, and circumcisions, has shown to be affective in decreasing pain. Databases such as CINAHL, MEDLINE, and Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition were searched resulting in eight RCT and one clinical trial. Research yielded significant reduction in pain responses immediately after an invasive procedure in neonates receiving sucrose solution, compared with those who did not receive sucrose solution. Our findings extend the findings of previous studies on the ability of oral sucrose to blunt pain during invasive procedures. Administration of oral sucrose should be considered as one approach to pain management in infants during such invasive procedures.