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by xattt 1108 days ago
Not mentioned in the article, but IV caffeine citrate is routinely used as a drip to support hypoventilating pre-term neonates.
1 comments

Yes, my daughter (born several months prematurely) was given caffeine for a while. The nurses described it to me as "reminding her heart to keep beating and her lungs to keep working", since she was so premature that it wasn't something they were supposed to have to do without the mother's help yet.

My wife, who had gone through significant discomfort in order to cut off caffeine while pregnant (she was told otherwise the baby could be born already addicted to caffeine), was a bit exasperated when told that almost the first thing they did was give her daughter a caffeine IV. It was probably still the right thing for her to have done (so the caffeine IV had full affect), but I could sympathize with her position.