{ "release_id": "fc5a600ec7387e71", "id": "maternal:oral-dextrose-gel", "owner": "maternal", "kind": "intervention", "slug": "oral-dextrose-gel", "name": "Dextrose gel for newborn low blood sugar", "aliases": [ "Oral dextrose gel", "40% dextrose gel" ], "atlases": [ "maternal" ], "summary_plain": "A sugar gel (40% dextrose) given to babies with low blood sugar. In the Sugar Babies trial in New Zealand, treatment failed less often with the gel than with a placebo gel. A follow-up at 9 to 10 years found no difference in school achievement but lower scores on one test of visual perception in the gel group.", "summary_technical": "Sugar Babies (Lancet 2013): treatment failure 14% against 24%, relative risk 0.57 (95% CI 0.33 to 0.98). Mid-childhood follow-up (Neonatology 2023): low educational achievement 42% against 45%; visual perception standard scores 95.2 against 100.6 and low visual perception scores 23% against 11% (relative risk 2.23, 95% CI 1.13 to 4.37). The authors concluded that dextrose gel does not appear to cause clinically significant differences in educational achievement or other neurodevelopmental outcomes. Both are single-population results for the contexts stated in the claims.", "editorial_state": "draft", "last_substantive_edit": "2026-10-14", "last_evidence_check": null, "next_review_due": null, "identifiers": [], "navigation": { "maternal": { "life-stage": [ "newborn" ], "care-area": [ "newborn-care" ] } }, "payload": { "subtype": "medicine", "mechanism": null, "components": null }, "content_digest": "ec58b35a02a7086d9471fa38747498919f7a34b042d2cf09c387ae94aebd9df7", "review": { "content_digest": "ec58b35a02a7086d9471fa38747498919f7a34b042d2cf09c387ae94aebd9df7", "current": [], "conflicting": [], "stale": [], "inactive": [] }, "claims": [ { "release_id": "fc5a600ec7387e71", "id": "maternal:claim-sugar-babies-midchildhood", "owner": "maternal", "subject_entity_id": "maternal:oral-dextrose-gel", "category": "safety", "statement": "At 9 to 10 years of age, children who had received dextrose gel as newborns did not differ from the placebo group in low educational achievement (42% against 45%; relative risk 1.04, 95% CI 0.76 to 1.44), but had lower visual perception standard scores (95.2 against 100.6; mean difference -5.68, 95% CI -9.79 to -1.57) and more low visual perception scores (23% against 11%; relative risk 2.23, 95% CI 1.13 to 4.37). Other secondary outcomes were similar. The authors concluded that dextrose gel does not appear to cause clinically significant differences in educational achievement or other neurodevelopmental outcomes.", "context": { "id": "maternal:ctx-sugar-babies-children-9-10-years", "label": "Children aged 9 to 10 years who were treated as newborns in the Sugar Babies trial (mid-childhood follow-up)", "recipient": "newborn", "population": "The recipient of the treatment was the newborn; the measured population is the same people as children at a mean age of 9.3 years: 184 of 227 eligible children (81%), who had been randomised as babies to dextrose gel or placebo gel.", "care_setting": "Not stated in the abstract.", "geography": "Not stated in this abstract. The original trial ran in New Zealand.", "life_stage_note": "Mid-childhood, 9 to 10 years of age, after treatment as newborns", "life_stage_terms": { "maternal": [ "newborn" ] }, "gestational_age_min_days": null, "gestational_age_max_days": null, "gestational_age_basis": null, "postnatal_age_min_days": null, "postnatal_age_max_days": null, "gestational_age_status": null, "postnatal_age_status": null, "followup_description": "One follow-up assessment at a mean age of 9.3 years. The primary outcome was low educational achievement in reading or mathematics.", "eligibility": { "inclusion": [ "Children from the Sugar Babies trial cohort" ], "exclusion": [] } }, "evidence_stage": "interventional", "certainty": "not_assessed", "certainty_method": null, "limitations": "Follow-up of a randomised trial with 184 of 227 eligible children (81%) assessed. The visual perception difference was a secondary outcome. The abstract does not say whether secondary results were adjusted for multiple comparisons. Only the abstract was read.", "editorial_state": "draft", "checked_at": null, "next_review_due": null, "valid_from": null, "valid_to": null, "citations": [ { "evidence_role": "supports", "locator": "Abstract, RESULTS, sentences 2 to 4", "applicability_note": "Educational achievement and visual perception results.", "snapshot": { "id": "maternal:pubmed-36516806-2026-10-14", "retrieved_at": "2026-10-14T18:24:00Z", "content_hash": "dceefa05b1c61bfdf1519053a4fdcfd0ec885d9c7e681446ed77f1360da7384d", "source_effective_date": null, "public_archive_url": null, "source_state": "current" }, "source": { "id": "maternal:pubmed-10-1159-000527715", "source_type": "publication", "title": "Mid-Childhood Outcomes after Dextrose Gel Treatment of Neonatal Hypoglycaemia: Follow-Up of the Sugar Babies Randomized Trial", "canonical_url": "https://doi.org/10.1159/000527715", "identifiers": [ { "scheme": "doi", "value": "10.1159/000527715", "normalized_value": "10.1159/000527715", "match": "exact", "version": null, "label": null, "from_source": false }, { "scheme": "pmid", "value": "36516806", "normalized_value": "36516806", "match": "exact", "version": null, "label": null, "from_source": false }, { "scheme": "pmcid", "value": "PMC9992292", "normalized_value": "PMC9992292", "match": "exact", "version": null, "label": null, "from_source": false } ], "publication_date": "2022-12-14", "publisher": "Neonatology", "edition": "PubMed record (abstract and bibliographic data) from NCBI E-utilities. 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The authors noted no serious adverse events.", "context": { "id": "maternal:ctx-sugar-babies-at-risk-35-42-weeks", "label": "At-risk babies of 35 to 42 weeks with low blood sugar (Sugar Babies trial)", "recipient": "newborn", "population": "Babies of 35 to 42 weeks of gestation, younger than 48 hours old and at risk of hypoglycaemia. Of 514 enrolled babies, 242 (47%) became hypoglycaemic and were randomised; 237 were analysed.", "care_setting": "A tertiary centre in New Zealand.", "geography": "New Zealand", "life_stage_note": "Newborns of 35 to 42 weeks of gestation, under 48 hours old. No gestational or postnatal bound is set in the structured fields because the abstract gives the ages as a range and in hours.", "life_stage_terms": { "maternal": [ "newborn" ] }, "gestational_age_min_days": null, "gestational_age_max_days": null, "gestational_age_basis": null, "postnatal_age_min_days": null, "postnatal_age_max_days": null, "gestational_age_status": null, "postnatal_age_status": null, "followup_description": "Treatment failure was a blood glucose concentration under 2.6 mmol/L after two treatment attempts.", "eligibility": { "inclusion": [ "Gestational age 35 to 42 weeks", "Younger than 48 hours old", "At risk of hypoglycaemia, and became hypoglycaemic" ], "exclusion": [] } }, "evidence_stage": "interventional", "certainty": "not_assessed", "certainty_method": null, "limitations": "Single tertiary centre in New Zealand. Babies were of 35 to 42 weeks of gestation and under 48 hours old, and the comparison was with feeding alone plus placebo gel. Treatment failure is a short-term blood glucose outcome; later outcomes are in the mid-childhood follow-up claim. 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