https://www.rch.org.au/rchcpg/hospital_clinical_guideline_index/sucrose_oral_for_procedural_pain_management_in_infants/ https://www.rch.org.au/rchcpg/hospital_c

https://www.rch.org.au/rchcpg/hospital_clinical_guideline_index/sucrose_oral_for_procedural_pain_management_in_infants/ https://www.rch.org.au/rchcpg/hospital_clinical_guideline_in... Sucrose is considered a mild analgesic for infants under 18 months More broadly: The human nervous system undergoes a lot of changes during maturation. As an example, some NMDA receptors in the prefrontal cortex become inhibitory during puberty whereas they were previously excitatory. Essentially a polarity switch in the some of the reasoning centers of the brain. Very broadly, and to get my super asshole-y pedantic Socratic hat on: What is pain anyway? Like, if you can't remember it, is that even pain? What does it mean to 'remember'? Can a grasshopper or a yeast cell feel 'pain' if it doesn't have consciousness? Is an infant really conscious? What does it mean to feel something anyway? Are feelings even 'real'? How the fuck do we even know anything really anyway? This is, again, super pedantic Socratic asshole philosophy bullshit, but it does end up mattering in the context of infants. And, also, to be super clear here, I'm not advocating for causing pain to infants here.