Breastfeeding Give Better Pain-Relief Than Sugar Water

New research in the September issue of Pediatrics shows that newborns who breastfeed during a routine heel prick test experience much less discomfort than babies given sugar water. Dr. Luigi Codipietro of Agnelli Hospital in Turin, Italy states, "If our results are confirmed, breastfeeding during a minor pain procedure could be regarded as a noninvasive, natural, and feasible way of reducing pain in neonatal units."

Previous studies have shown that giving babies sugar water can reduce pain to an extent, but breastfeeding also appears to have pain-relieving effects. In the new study, the researchers compared the two techniques in 101 full-term babies. Newborns who were breastfed during the heel prick test had dramatically lower scores on a standardized pain scale that uses facial expressions, behavior, heart rate and the amount of oxygen in a baby's blood to give a pain score from 0 to 21. The majority of newborns who breastfed scored a 3; newborns given sugar water scored 8.5. The breastfeeding babies cried during the procedure for 3 seconds; the sugar water group cried for 21 seconds. The breastfed babies also had a minor jump in heart rate, a smaller drop in oxygen saturation, and during the two minutes after the heel prick they cried for 8 percent of the time, compared to 56 percent for babies given sugar water.

Codipietro believes that there are many aspects of breastfeeding that could result in these analgesic effects, such as the skin-to-skin contact, the stimulation from breast milk, or holding of the infant. Whatever the case may be, this is one more benefit to tout!