Posted by
Wheelymate
20 yrs ago
hi there,
i have cousins (when they were toddlers) who used to have tantrums and would cry until they looked like they would pass out.
my boy is now 8 months and has been ill this week but he still very active, crawling everywhere. but he is extremely sensitive, clingy and crying easily due to the illness.
this afternoon, he did the most horrifying thing twice - he bumped his head (i know, terrible mum but he's too fast for me to catch hold) and started to cry but no sound came out...i cradled him asap of course but then there was still no crying sound and he looked like he was going to pass out(although he didn't).
i just googled what happened and turns out this breath holding spells can happen to babies from 6 months onwards, peaking at 2 years. but it was terrifying to see it and i was shocked to see this happening so soon - from my memory, my cousins did it as toddlers when they didn't get what they want.
has anyone experienced this before with your kid (and how old were they when it first happened) and how did you handle the situation? he was well and happy after each episode and i read that the only thing i might want to check out for is anemia, which would make such spells more likely.
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scary is an understatement!!
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Wow, thanks for that tip Ruth. My bubbs leans that way for a few seconds when he's really really hungry.
When he's excited he pants a lot. Is this normal for a baby? Will it give him a lot of gas?
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@@
20 yrs ago
As a very little baby my son did this, he turned blue and passed out. I was with my mother and a midwife at the time, we flipped him upside down and he started to breath again. Horrid!!
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something like that happened to me when i was around 5... my dad he flipped me upside down and he let me eat a spoonfull of sugar when i turned red and almost passed out. i dont know what's with the sugar, but i remember that day i bumped my head hard on the floor, couldnt cry out loud (no sound) and was almost out of breath and almost passed out. i got a terrible headache and red eyes that almost popped out coz of that insidence, they didnt want me to fall asleep too afterwards (dont know why) but upto these days, when my baby back a couple of months ago bumped her head, the nanny and my mother-in-law said dont let the baby sleep or anything like that. things happens-part of growing up. good luck!
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crj
20 yrs ago
Panting - I think this is normal, every baby I know seems to do this when excited although some more than others.
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jewel whoopi: when people get concussions, medical help forces them to stay awake and conscious. Sorry this is not thread related, but a girlfriend of mine had a bad skiing accident & knocked her noggin pretty hard - the rescue team made her stay awake until she was put under observation.
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just got back from doc for follow-up on baby's illness this week. asked him about the breath holding. he said if it's infrequent, it's nothing to worry about but if it happens often, to bring back to clinic as it could be a sign of iron deficiency.
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Hey, I've never experienced this frightening thing with a child, but I once read in a book that if they actually do pass out, their autonomic nervous system takes over and they'll start breathing again. In other words, once they pass out, they have no more conscious control to not breathe, and so the unconscious part of the brain restarts it again. This book was saying it was impossible for a child to hurt himself by stopping breathing (of course unless he hurts himself when he falls over). Anybody got experience with this? I think my response personally would depend mostly on my gauge of whether the child is just angry and doing this to get his way or whether it's truly a sincere state of emotional fright (etc) in which case the child may need simply to be held and comforted until he can get more of a "grip" to cope with life on his own. But in neither case would I enable using breath-holding or temper tantrum as a means of manipulation. My mom told me and it's true, get them under control now because it's a lot easier to establish control of an 8 month old than it is to try and start when they're 18 years old. But be loving and kind, as well.
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I remember that my sister was a breath holder when she was little. She would hurt herself and then as she started to cry, not be able to take a breath. She would eventually pass out and then would breath again. However, when she passed out, she would bump her head and would wet herself. I remember my Mom tried everything (yelling, a light smack on the bottom, cuddling, etc.) nothing worked except to hold her so she didn't hurt herself if she passed out.
My daughter also did this a few times when she was two. I recognized it right away, so I just held her and calmly kept telling her to breathe. I also tried the blowing in the face as Ruth suggests, but I'm not sure that it helped.
It is scary when this happens. I think the best thing is just to stay calm, talk quietly to her and hold her so she can't get hurt if she passes out. She'll then start breathing again.
Both my sister and daughter seemed to outgrow this by about age 4. I have also heard that there is a genetic link and now my niece, age 2, is also doing it.
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Yah, you definitely don't want them to get hurt when they fall over. And you definitely do want them to know they are loved and will be cared for even when their emotions are overwhelming for them. I think even when the answer is "NO," you can still hold them and be loving as you say it. The other thing, the blowing in the face thing to trigger the reflex, it's not just a gentle blow but a big burst of air. I was taught this as a way to get my baby to take medicine when we couldn't get it down any other way!
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Totty
20 yrs ago
My parents say i used to do this a lot and they used to run cold water over my face, very briefly. I tended to do this when i couldn't get my own way (doesn't work know and cannot believe i was such a horror as a child) and i would turn blue, so either Mum or Dad would quickly run my face under the cold water tap and that would bring me out of it.
30 years on, hasn't harmed me.
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AAaaah, I read something about this the other week. Apparently when babies or toddlers pass out from holding (or not being able to get) their breath, the body re-boots. Basically, the act of passing out allows the body to re-boot.
Haven't seen it with my little one but it sounds very scarey.
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