The Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine recently updated its’ clinical protocol entitled Non-pharmacologic Management of Procedure-Related Pain in the Breastfeeding Infant, Revised 2016
This protocol reviews the literature on pain control for infants undergoing office procedures such as circumcision, blood draw, immunizations, and urinary catheter placement. Based on strong evidence, the protocol emphasizes that breastfeeding should be the first choice to soothe young infants during immunizations or heel sticks. If direct breastfeeding is not possible, human milk given via syringe, bottle or dropper + pacifier also has a soothing effect on procedural pain.
When direct breastfeeding is not possible, and human milk is not available, the next option would be using a sucrose solution. Skin-to-skin contact in conjunction with sucrose solution plus a pacifier may be more effective for soothing than sucrose solution by itself.