by JEREMY LAURENCE
Until the 1950s, doctors thought babies did not suffer pain because their consciousness was not sufficiently developed. The normal pain responses – grimacing and crying – were dismissed as reflexes. Babies subjected to surgery were given anaesthetics to put them to sleep but not analgesic drugs for the pain, as children and adults were.
In the 1970s, a definitive study showed babies did benefit from analgesia. But as it is difficult to test them on babies, few drugs are available.
Giving a teaspoonful of sugar solution to babies was thought to relieve pain based on the way it reduced grimacing and crying after a painful procedure. It is believed to stimulate the production of “endogenous opiates” – the body’s own natural pain-relieving drugs – and has become standard practice before blood tests and similar procedures. Some doctors maintain the evidence is now so strong that it may be unethical not to use it.
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