IT MIGHT be better to give your children sweets before they have an injection, rather than after. “You’ve got to give the lollipop before the shot,” says Julie Mennella of the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia. That’s because sweets can act like painkillers in children and it seems that the more they like them, the better they work.
It has been known for some time that babies are soothed by sweet-tasting substances, and animal studies show that eating a sugar such as sucrose releases natural opioids. To find out if a child’s sweet preference influences how well sucrose works…
