We have been discussing this approach in our department while back, however the evidence seems too low. There was a Pediatrics paper in 2005 (Marlier et al.) and some sparse reports (Arzi et al., 2009; Edraki et al., 2013) thereafter and even though the effect was significant the relevance is somewhat uncertain. We dropped the idea in our department even though it seems somewhat tempting. Are you using vanillin in the NICU? Any experience yet?

We just used it once and the result was great (our little patient stopped having apneas almost immediately). But even with the good results some of the other doctors and chief nurses remained skeptical. The evidence seems to low to make an impact. 

That's interesting. We are trying so hard to keep levels of aggitation as low as possible so that was the ultimate argument against odours. Like most NICUs we have a no-fragnant policy and the therapy kind of contradicts that. However, I believe the levels of caffeine we are using are so high that some more aggitaion with odours is not the real problem.

1: Marlier L, Gaugler C, Messer J. Olfactory stimulation prevents apnea in premature newborns. Pediatrics. 2005 Jan;115(1):83-8.

2: Gaugler C, Marlier L, Messer J. [Sensory stimulations for the treatment of idiopathic apneas of prematurity]. Arch Pediatr. 2007 May;14(5):485-9.

3: Gallego J, Matrot B. Arousal response to hypoxia in newborns: Insights from animal models. Biol Psychol. 2010 Apr;84(1):39-45.