Hello,
My 15 month old son has had this habit for a couple of months now where when he is mad and about to cry he holds his breath. Now for the most part it isn’t long and it is not every time he cries, I have been blowing in his face and that startles him and he takes a deep breath while he screams his head off. Then this last month or so he has been holding his breath a little longer and turning a nice shade of light blue. Scary…but yet still catching his breath but sometimes I have to rattle him and blow a little harder in his face.
Well, I am sure you see where this story is going…now he is holding it long enough to make himself pass out. He has passed out on us for the third time last night. The first two times have been what I would consider mild. His eyes rolled back and he went a bit limp as he was still breathing and was in the middle of catching his breath while he was limp. BUT last night, he was completely blue, and passed out in my arms…I had to shake him and call his name for what seemed like an eternity. It was sooo scary. He came too and then he laid on me after and then about 15 minutes later he was his happy go-lucky self and played all night like normal.
Has anyone experienced this with their children? What do I do in this situation? And ultimately how can I stop him from throwing this fit and even starting to hold his breath? Obviously this is something I have heard kids grow out of…but I feel like we can’t take this chance of him doing this to us. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!!!
Thank you all for your suggestions, guidance and stories...I met with our children's doctor who also happens to be our neighbor (lucky us!) and she confirmed that this is probably not an attention seeking activity. Some children at this age have a lot of fears and anixeties and they can't control what they are doing...and they cry so hard they hold their breath which in turn if they hold it long enough they will pass out. LIke many of you have posted yes, he will be fine. Passing out is indeed the way the body resets itself. But none the less is a very scary experience. She said a cold wash cloth will revive him quicker--she did however say that punishment or ignoring him would not help the situation. Figuring out the triggers that upset him and modifying what we do to set those triggers off would be most helpful to our family. We want him to grow up to feel secure and confident, and she assured me that at his age with this type of issue he may not have a clue why that just happened all he knows is that I walked out and he was scared. I hope this post has helped some of you and I appreciate the responses as they helped me through what we thought was a very difficult time.
Tell him 'no' and then ignore him. It won't be nearly so attention getting if no one is paying attention.
One of my four did that. I laughed at them and walked away. They never did it again.
Stop giving him attention. They can't die from it but they can sure use it.
After your SWH - I understand that you are upset and worried, and that this is scary. And I understand that the last thing you want to do is pop his bottom and walk away. (Someone mentioned cold water in the face - that's an alternative, though I wouldn't have wanted to do that either!) However, have you tried popping him on the bottom to see if it would work? I would try it rather than allow him to turn blue and become limp and have to feel like he's close to death. Really and truly. If it's a choice between the two, I think that you should at least TRY it and see if it works to prevent him from passing out. If you still can't bear it, then at least you would know. Just my two cents.
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Well, I haven't read any other posts, but I think that he gets a lot of attention from you when he pulls this, knows you are worried, and really believes that he will get his way, the longer he does it.
And regardless of what anyone else says here, this is what I would have done if my kids had ever done it - I would have popped him on the butt to break the cycle. And then I would walk away from him while he screams. As soon as he holds his breath again, pop him again. He can't continue to hold his breath, I don't think, when you pop him.
If you are averse to that, I guess I would put him in the play pen every time and walk out of the room. That way he is in a safe place and has NO audience for the breath holding.
Good luck,
Dawn
I remember my own mother talking about situations like this. She said she threw cold water in our face. It made us breathe again and after a couple of times we stopped because who likes cold water thrown in their face!
Don't let anybody tell you this is a temper tantrum situation. It is not! Three of my four children had them. Two of them just passed out and then woke up and were fine. The other one would turn blue and have what looked like a seizure. She would jerk convulsively, her eyes would roll back into her head, she was grayish blue, and her breathing was very light and shallow. Usually when this happened, I could just blow on her face and clap my hands really loud in her face and she would come out of it. One time, I could not get her out of it, and called the ambulance, she was intubated and everything. Even the paramedics couldn't get her to snap out of it. They took her to the Children's hospital where she was evaluated by a neurologist and a cardiologist.
Here is what the Neurologist told me: About 10% of children have breath holding spells. There is even a medical term for them. They are called Cyanotic breath-holding spells. It is NOT a power trip by them! It is NOT a temper tantrum! It has NOTHING to do with your parenting or discipline! About 10% of the 10% have what my daugher had. They are called Pallid breath-holding spells. And they are TERRIFYING! She wasn't having a temper tantrum, sometimes it would happen when she bumped her head a little bit or her sister took a toy away. The neurologist told me that they are definitely not life-threatening, that although it seems like they are not breathing, they are! They won't have permanent damage from them. And best of all, they go away by the time they are 5. He had her evaluated by the cardiologist because in RARE cases, these can be caused by a heart-defect, but luckily for us, that was not the problem.
As for advice, we trained ourselves to be on the lookout for when these would happen and we snapped her out of it before it would even start. When she would start to get upset about something, she would take a breath, like a baby starting to cry, but the breath just wouldn't come out again. Her lips would start to turn blue, etc. So, before she passed out or started seizing, we would get in her face, shout her name, shout "BREATHE!" clap our hands, etc. We probably looked ridiculous, but it worked. She never had another one. Best of all, she started to understand what the word "breathe" meant and when we would shout that, she would force herself to do it.
I'm sorry this is long, but I know how incredibly terrifying these episodes are and I completely sympathize. Please know that you are not doing anything wrong. Your child is not a bad kid and won't suffer permanently from this. Also know that this doesn't mean he is stubborn or willful. In fact, to be honest, my child that did this as a toddler is probably the most easy-going of the four of them :) God Bless!
My nephew used to do it around the same age and it lasted a yer or two. When he was crying really hard, he'd pass out. It always upset his mom and dad but it was always the same. He'd pass out and then come to ASAP. They did consult a neurologist who said not to worry.
He is now in college, is a math genius and plans to be a doctor.
Let him pass out... that's his body's way of resetting itself. He's not going to deprive himself of oxygen long enough to do any damage. Bring it up with the pediatrician, but I promise this is a phase and he can't hurt himself.
My middle child used to do this and got over it very quickly.
My oldest did this around 12 months old. We even had an overnight stay at the hospital to have tests run on her. I almost got to the point where I was scared to be by myself with her. A few times we even had to splash cold water in her face to get her to snap out of it. It is super scary to see your baby go limp and their eyes roll back in their head. I wouldn't just walk away. Although I know that the body passing out is it's way of "taking over again", when my daughter was at the hospital having test run when we were going thru this they did tell me to know infant CPR just in case. She is now a very healthy almost 18 year old getting ready to graduate from high school. Take comfort in knowing he WILL grow out of it. I know it is scary in the meantime and my thoughts and prayers are with you.
He wants you to freak out, and you are letting him best you. Ignore him completely. He may do it a couple more times, then get bored with it. It won't last long.
I am not anti-spanking, but personally I wouldn't use it in this situation as it's really not necessary. Just walking away from him entirely will absolutely do the trick as many of the other responses have said as well. He wants your attention, well he's sure figured out a way to get it, huh? Quit giving it to him & he'll quit holding his breath until he passes out, 100% guaranteed.
I don't know what they did about it, but I know my brother-in-law did that as a baby. I think their doctor just told them he'd pass out and recover just fine. I don't know if he turned blue; I would freak out at that, too. But anyway--he definitely did the same thing, it definitely freaked his parents out, and he's now 27, alive, healthy, and smart! :)
My grandson is 23 months old and he has been doing this for about a year now. He cries and it seems he loses his ability to breath, his lips turn blue and if I catch it early enough I can talk him out of it but once he loses his breath, his lips turn blue and he passes out. He also goes stiff and his hands turn in and he has had convultions. My son and daughter in law took him to a nurologist and they said he would out grow it around the age of three. I have seen improvement in the last couple months so I hope so. It wears him out and he will sleep afterwards anywhere from a half hour to hour. It is scary and we worry each time, but now that he had been checked out and Epilipsy has been ruled out, we take it in stride a little better. When he starts crying start talking with him telling him he is ok and if he starts catching his breath calmly say "Breath in and out, come on and breath." I think talking gives him a distraction and unfuses the situation. Don't panick because that causes him to be more scared and more likely to pass out. Taking him out in the cool air might bring him back around too. I know it is hard to do but you might video what he is doing so you can show the doctor and they could tell you if there is a problem or not. Hope this helps.
Yeah, one of my girls did this (I can't even remember which one) and I walked away. No attention given and no hugs for the aftermath, and she stopped. Same thing for the one that would make herself gag until she threw up. I used to hand her a paper towel and say, "I hope you're going to clean that up." Those incidents stopped very quickly.
