The use of dextrose gel to protect premature babies against brain damage should be resurrected in hospitals, midwives have said following the publication of a new study.
Babies born early often have dangerously low blood sugar, which can harm their brains. Rubbing dextrose gel into the inside of the cheeks is a rapid way of raising blood sugar levels.
A team at the University of Auckland in New Zealand looked at 242 babies who had become hypoglycaemic between 2008 and 2010.
Treatment with dextrose reduced the risk of normal treatment failing by almost half, plus it was easier to administer than a drip, lead author Professor Jane Harding said in The Lancet.
Doctors and midwives have called the study a significant breakthrough and said the NHS should make dextrose gel routinely available in hospitals.
Around 54,000 babies are born prematurely each year in England alone.