Somatic growth in infants receiving prolonged caffeine therapy.

We have evaluated the longitudinal growth of 28 premature infants who had been treated by prolonged caffeine therapy (mean: 23.8 weeks). Routine follow-up included at least 5 physical examinations with measurement of length, weight and head circumference at the beginning of caffeine therapy, at mid therapy, at the end of the therapy and at 3 and 6 months after therapy. The distribution of the infants on the growth curves according to weight, length and head circumference showed a regular increase in growth parameters. Analysis of variance was highly significant at p less than 0.0001. We conclude that long term caffeine treatment does not adversely influence growth parameters, at least during early infancy.