Hi, my name is Stephanie and I am a mother of 3 boys we just had a new boy the 12th and 1 week after he was born he had his first apena episode due to acid reflux. We spent 3 days in the childrens hospital to have a Ph Neumogram (sp?) to see just how much acid reflux he was having and he also had a sleep test done. We found out that he has severe apena and severe acid reflux. They don't think the two are related although they did at first. When doing the test they noticed that his Ph level dropped after he was eating instead of durring, which they said is unusual. When the test results came back they found he has a 16% occurence of apena durring sleeping and in newborns a normal occurence is 2%. They said he will take a breath...hold it in and let it out every other breath. But onto my question. They put him on Zantac and they want me to give him Caffiene drops to keep him more awake, and keep him on the apena moniter that the ER set up for us. Aparentally the Caffiene is very hard to find in our area because none of the stores can fill it. I was wondering if anyone ever had their child on Caffiene drops and what happened while they were on these drops. Were they more awake? Did they have fits...or any other strange things? I've looked up caffiene for this issue but I have yet to find the answers to these questions when it comes to children.

Hi Stephanie,

We moderators have been very remiss in checking the pediatric section and I apologize for that. PM Sleepydave, he may not be able to help you find the caffeine drops, but he runs several labs, including a sleep lab I have seen him post about the pediatric acid reflux/apnea issue.  He is very knowledgable and may be able to give you some more insight.

Vicki


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That which does not kill you makes you stronger-Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich must of had apnea.

Hi Stephanie,

My daughter was born three months early and developed both apnea and acid reflux. The Zantac worked for the reflux, and the caffeine did wonders for the apnea. Also, she outgrew it very quickly, so I am sure your son will do fine. My daughter is two now, and she has no problems with either.