Babies and Breast Milk - KCBD NewsChannel 11 Lubbock

Breast milk may be a potent painkiller. That's the finding of new research published in the journal Pediatrics.

The study found that infants who were held and breast fed while undergoing a poke in the foot to draw blood cried less and their heartbeats remained calmer than infants who were not breast fed. Doctors used to think that infants didn't feel pain like children or adults do, but studies have proven that theory is wrong.

Researchers at the Universtiy of Chicago say now that even the tastes and flavors in milk can help block pain signals in the spinal cord, and that suckling can have a calming effect.