Dr Rebecca Slater, who led a Medical Research Council-funded study at University College London, said: "Our findings indicate that sucrose is not an effective pain relief drug. This is especially important in view of the increasing evidence that pain may cause short- and long-term adverse effects on infant neurodevelopment."
The research measured the responses of the brains and spinal cords of 59 babies submitted to heel-prick tests after receiving an oral sucrose solution.
It is common practice to seek to reduce the pain of some procedures by giving babies one-tenth of a gram of sucrose. Slater suggested that such routine use was stopped until further investigation was carried out.
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