None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
Giving babies either a sugar solution or breast milk into their mouth is well known to reduce pain during blood tests or other painful procedures. No studies have compared the effectiveness of these two methods in the premature babies of a neonatal unit, who unfortunately often have to undergo a number of painful procedures during their stay. Currently in our unit we use both solutions, and this study aims to formally record which babies are receiving which solution and “score” their pain using monitoring of heart rate, oxygen levels, and facial expressions. Each baby will be randomly assigned one of the two solutions, and a nurse who does not know which solution has been given will calculate the pain score during the procedure. We hope to provide good evidence for both our own and other neonatal units so that we can give the safest, most effective pain relief to our premature babies.
Interventions
1ml of oral breast milk given as one dose immediately prior to painful procedures.
Each baby will receive one dose per painful procedure during their admission.
Sponsors
Waitakere Hospital
Study design
Allocation
Randomised controlled trial
Intervention model
Parallel
Primary purpose
Treatment
Masking
Blinded (masking used)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
0 to 4 Months
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
Admission to the Special Care Baby Unit at Waitakere Hospital, and undergoing at least one painful procedure during admission. Admission criteria to the neonatal unit include prematurity >32 but <36 weeks, weight <2000g, sepsis, hypoglycamia, respiratory distress or clinical instability requiring admission.
Exclusion criteria
Mother's breast milk not available for administration. Medically not stable enough to tolerate oral analgesia.
Outcome results
None listed