Blass 1997.

Methods	RCT Painful intervention: heel lance Study location: Tompkins Community Hospital, Ithaca, New York, USA Study period: not stated
Participants	72 newborn infants (PNA 22 h to 40 h)
Interventions	2 mL 12% sucrose (n = 8) 2 mL protein solution (Provimin) (n = 8) 2 mL lactose (n = 8) 2 mL dilute fat (coconut and soy oil blend) (n = 8) 2 mL concentrated fat (n = 8) 2 mL fat and lactose solution (n = 8) 2 mL Ross Special Formula (RSF ‐ artificial milk) (n = 8) 2 mL Similac (artificial milk) (n = 8) Solutions were given via syringe over a 2‐min period
Outcomes	Crying time (percentage of procedure time spent crying, percentage of time spent crying during 3‐min recovery period, number of infants that cried 20% or more during each recovery minute)
Notes	Sucrose vs. water, Similac vs. water and RSF vs. water were compared using Mann‐Whitney U test. Most results were presented in graph form and means were reported in the text and could not be combined in meta‐analyses Adverse events were not evaluated
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Sequence generation not described
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Similac group could not be concealed because appearance differed from other intervention solutions
Blinding (performance bias and detection bias) All outcomes	Low risk	Sucrose and water solutions blinded However, Similac group was high risk as its appearance differed from sucrose or water
Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) All outcomes	Unclear risk	Sucrose and water solutions blinded. However, Similac group was high risk as its appearance differed from sucrose or water
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	Low risk	Outcomes reported for all randomized infants
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	Unclear risk	The study protocol was not available to us so we could not judge whether there were any deviations from it
Other bias	Unclear risk	Several test solutions were gifts from Ross Laboratories