This article was originally going to be about the effects of sugar on the brain and our appetite. But he wasn’t sure anyone cared about that. However, practically everyone cares about babies. So I thought that they, you, would also care about the brains of babies.
Much research has been done on rat pups and sugar. When rat pups are separated from their mothers, for example, they cry. When the researchers give them sugar, they stop crying. Sugar triggers a release of beta-endorphins, which stops anxiety and promotes a feeling of well-being. Even in rat pups.
Did you know that this information is being used on human babies?
Newborn babies are subjected to a variety of painful procedures: heel lance to take blood samples and many more. Painful procedures are even more numerous and varied in preterm infants. Pain responses in newborns are measured by heart rate, crying time, facial activity, and other behaviors.
Sedation was once the most widely used method of treating neonatal pain. That has been replaced by non-pharmacological pain relief procedures. Some of them include pacifiers, position changes, swaddling, cradling, and reducing tactile stimulation. It is an area of ​​disagreement and controversy.
The use of sucrose has been recommended and studied quite extensively. Sucrose has been tried as a stand-alone treatment and also in combination with other treatments, such as pacifiers, human milk, and numbing cream.
Bottom line: sucrose appears to be effective on its own, and all other treatments seem to work better when combined with sucrose.
I started hearing about the work on newborns and sucrose while doing research for my thesis. I also heard it presented at a couple of seminars I attended. I was worried then and I’m even more worried that it will continue.
It is only possible to consider sugar as a non-narcotic intervention for newborns if its properties as an addictive drug are ignored. What are the implications for the future? We now have an obesity epidemic. What could happen if the practice becomes so widespread that, from birth, whenever there is pain, there is sugar?
The VMH is the main satiety center in the brain. Satiety is the feeling that we have eaten enough and do not need more. Beta-endorphin (typically called “endorphins”) inhibits the satiety effect of the VMH. That can increase food intake, especially for someone who is sensitive to the effects.
Sugar triggers beta-endorphins, as mentioned above. Sugar can also trigger cravings later that day or for a day or two. Sugar addiction, as a result of beta-endorphins and other brain chemicals, virtually guarantees that sugar consumption will continue long-term and will likely increase.
If you don’t take sugar seriously as an addictive drug, if you ignore its ability to increase appetite in several different ways, then this procedure with babies seems harmless. And I sound like an alarmist curmudgeon. (Don’t worry, I’ve been called worse.)
We wouldn’t even think of giving newborns any kind of narcotic painkillers. I wish we were less arrogant about sugar. It’s as close to a narcotic as it gets, but easy to dismiss because it’s disguised as food. (Maybe in name only, but still.)
Ending pain for babies is obviously a good thing. Sugar looks innocent and harmless when used that way, but it’s not.