Breath-Holding Spells

I snuck in this morning and caught this picture of H. napping. She was such a sweet precious angel baby, and then the shit hit the fan. We had a little drama here today complete with my first 911 call, an ambulance, and a trip to the Children's Hospital ER.

On our way out the door to go for a walk, H. was fussing over having her shoes put on, having her sweater put on and having her nose wiped. Suddenly, she had enough and she went from fussy to acting like she had just gotten her immunization shots. Her lips curled back, mouth open in horror, and eyes watering. I was already in the process of comforting her, since I've seen this look before and I am usually able to hold her and calm her until she catches her breath. Not this time.

This time, she couldn't catch her breath. Instead, her entire face turned purple, her head flopped back, her eyes rolled and she couldn't breath. This lasted for over a minute. I had no idea what was going on, but I knew immediately that something was wrong and that I needed to call 911. And when they got here, if she was ok, then they were going to need to take me away for heart failure.

It felt like it took forever to find a phone, and the whole time I thought she was going to collapse in my arms. Finally, hands shaking, it took me two tries to call 911. Somewhere during this time, H. finally caught her breath and started crying, but her arms were limp and her head was flopping. And then the right side of her body started twitching. I am trying to explain all of this to the operator wracking my brain for what could be wrong with her. However, with her crying, it seemed like her color was coming back. phew.

By the time the paramedics got to the house, she had almost recovered, and we decided that I would just take her to the hospital to get her checked out. Long story longer, as it turns out, kids do this. It is called a Breath-Holding Spell.

A breath-holding spell is when your child holds his/her breath when they are suddenly injured, frustrated, angry or frightened.

Breath-holding spells begin between the ages of 6 months and 2 years. They occur only while the child is awake.

During a breath-holding spell;
- Your Child may make 1 or 2 cries and then hold his breath until he becomes blue around the lips and passes out.
- Your child may stiffen and may have a few twitches or muscle jerks.
- Your child will breathe normally again and become fully alert in less than 1 minue.

An Abnormal reflex allows 5% of normal children to hold their breath long enough to pass out. Most children do not do this deliberately.

Holding the breath (when frustrated) and becoming bluish without passing out is such a common reatction in young infants that it is not considered abnormal.

Children usually stop having breath-holding spells by the time they are 4 or 5 years old.

I thought after our last trip to Children's, we made a pact with H. to never go back to the hospital. Apparently there are some new ground rules. The moral of this story is that H. can have as many drippy snotcicles dangling out her nose as she wants.