Apnea (Apnoea) & caffeine as a treatment

Wow, how scary for you. I'm not much help as we never had treatment for apnoea, but one of my 36 weekers had 2 apnoeic episodes as a newborn (3 and 5 weeks) and it was put down to reflux. She was on a monitor for ages, but never had another episode and her twin was fine.

My DD was born very prematurely so obviously had alot of apnoeas. It is standard practice to give prems caffiene as it stimulates them to start breathing if they stop. When discharged from hospital we had an apnoea monitor but thankfully for us she didn't have any episodes once we were home. I do still remember the heartstopping moments when it went off because the probe had slipped or something! Good luck, hope all goes well with your little guy

I so understand where you're coming from. My boys were born at 35 weeks (1.7 & 2.2kg) and had an Aponea monitor as standard practise but for some reason Eli had most of his episodes at 4 weeks old (before coming home) which they couldn't explain. He'd have about 4 or 5 episodes a day. I was so worried when I saw it happen the first time but the nurses were so great at reasuring me that it happens to most prems and to rub their chest to get them to take a breath again which worked every time. I hated leaving my boys at night knowing they could have more episodes but my mind was at ease having heard how load the moniter was! Most NICU mums' feared the day they decided to turn the moniter off. They only turned Eli's off after 1 full day of no episodes which scared me quite a bit but he had no episodes after that or none that I vivedy remember. Most NICU mums ask to take one home but they were great at reasuring you that if they thought for once moment that your child should have it they'd give it to you.

Think of it as a great reasurance that he's well looked after with this extra monitering. I'm sure his episodes will stop and all will be fine, sounds like you're in great hands.