More babies to benefit from New Zealand's low blood sugar gel breakthrough

University of Auckland scientists found that massaging dextrose gel into the inside of a baby's cheek was an effective way to treat hypoglycaemia, a common ailment. Photo / University of Auckland

A New Zealand breakthrough that's benefited millions of babies around the world is set to make an even bigger impact, by helping stop the common infant ailment it's been used to treat.

Neonatal hypoglycaemia - or low blood sugar - is a common problem that affects up to 15 per cent of otherwise healthy babies and is a preventable cause of brain damage.

Nearly a decade ago, Distinguished Professor Dame Jane Harding and her research group at the University of Auckland's Liggins Institute found that massaging dextrose gel into the inside of the baby's cheek was an effective way to treat the problem.

This simple treatment, roughly costing just $2 per baby, has proven an effective in reversing low glucose levels, halving admissions to neonatal intensive care for this problem while improving breast-feeding rates.

It's since been adopted around the world, saving millions of families from separation soon after birth, and millions of dollars for healthcare systems.

Now, one of the medical profession's key sources for evidence on clinical treatments, the Cochrane Library, has completed a research review showing how the gel can also be used to avoid babies getting hypoglycaemia in the first place.

The Cochrane review estimated giving dextrose gel to 100 at-risk late preterm and term infants would prevent about six cases of hypoglycaemia - and probably prevent five cases of major neurological disability - without increasing the risk of adverse events.

No-one had ever before studied the preventative treatment.

The study, dubbed hPOD, involved rubbing either the sugar gel, or a placebo, into the inside of the cheek in at-risk newborns an hour after birth.

At-risk babies – up to a third of all born - are those born preterm, smaller or larger than usual, and babies whose mothers have diabetes.

Researchers believed the inexpensive gel could help prevent babies from getting hypoglycaemia, which remained the only readily preventable cause of brain damage in infancy.

As a result of the earlier Liggins breakthrough, dextrose gel as a treatment for babies with hypoglycaemia was recommended in many countries, including Aotearoa, the UK, Australia, Sweden, Canada and the US.

Dextrose gel as a preventative is now on the way.

Harding - a former Rhodes scholar, doctor and world-renowned scientist recognised with New Zealand's top science honour in 2019, and a Damehood last year - said she was thrilled more babies were about to benefit from the work.

"Clinicians need to weigh the evidence for themselves, but it seems compelling to me."