title: Efficacy of sweet solutions for analgesia in infants between 1 and 12 months of age: a systematic review.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To compare the efficacy of oral sweet solutions to water or no treatment in infants aged 1-12 months during immunisation.
  
  
  METHODS
  Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) were retrieved through internet searches or manual searches of reference lists. Search terms included newborn, infant, pain, sucrose and alternative names for sweet solutions. Summary estimates with 95% CIs were calculated and included relative risk (RR), risk difference (RD) and number needed to treat to benefit (NNTB) for dichotomous outcomes, and weighted mean differences (WMD) for continuous outcomes. Where pooling of results was not possible, a narrative summary of study results is presented.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the 695 studies identified, 14 RCTs with 1674 injections met the inclusion criteria. Sucrose or glucose, compared to water or no treatment decreased crying during or following immunisation in 13 of the 14 studies. Infants receiving 30% glucose (three trials, 243 infants) had a decreased RR in crying incidence following immunisation (typical RR 0.80, 95% CI 0.69 to 0.93; RD -0.17, 95% CI -0.29 to -0.05; NNTB 6, 95% CI 3 to 20). With sucrose or glucose, there was a 10% WMD reduction in proportion of crying time (95% CI -18 to -2) and a 12 s reduction in crying duration (95% CI -23 to -0.7 s). An optimal dose of sucrose or glucose could not be ascertained due to the varied volumes and concentrations used.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Infants aged 1-12 months administered sucrose or glucose before immunisation had moderately reduced incidence and duration of crying. Healthcare professionals should consider using sucrose or glucose before and during immunisation.
authors.affiliation: The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada. denise.harrison@utoronto.ca
authors.forename: Denise
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Harrison
authors.forename: Bonnie
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Stevens
authors.forename: Mariana
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bueno
authors.forename: Janet
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yamada
authors.forename: Thomasin
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Adams-Webber
authors.forename: Joseph
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Beyene
authors.forename: Arne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ohlsson
mesh_terms: D000698:Analgesia / Q000379:methods*; D003448:Crying; D005947:Glucose / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006801:Humans; D007114:Immunization / Q000009:adverse effects*; D007223:Infant; D010146:Pain / Q000209:etiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic / Q000379:methods; D013395:Sucrose / Q000627:therapeutic use*
chemical_list: D013395:Sucrose; D005947:Glucose