Breath-holding spell caught on video (doctor explains)

[tibbs]

This is so scary...used to happen with a boyfriend's baby niece. It's somehow triggered by angry crying. Back then, like 30 years ago, they were told by the doctor to splash water on her face. It worked. By the way, she turned out just fine and has her own children and a career.

[mycoldheart]

The mom's breath of relief was also mine too.

[justanotherday]

20 years ago I could find NOTHING on the internet when this used to happen to my son! It was THE scariest thing I had ever encountered. It was always triggered by him being overly tired, thus causing temper crying. I called the ambulance twice and rushed him to the hospital once where they found nothing and had no explanation. He would also stiffen and arch and have mini seizures where the back of his tongue clicked. One episode his eyeballs dilated and I believed that I had lost my loving, happy son to brain damage! I thought he no longer had brain function. For 30 minutes he just stared off in space and didn't make any eye contact or engage with me at all. As EMS was with me, he began to come around and after taking a 2 hour nap, he was back to his usual happy self! I'm so glad mothers can now know what these are! No amount of slapping them on the back or blowing in their face will snap them out of it. They will only come out of it after they pass out from lack of oxygen. It's a VERY scary thing to watch your child go through.

[MA-zgpz]

This happened to my daughter when she was a baby when I gave her medicine ( prescribed by her doctor) while she was very sick. It scared me so bad I called an ambulance! I thought maybe she’s having a allergic reaction. But I blowed on her face out of desperation and she began to breath again. A fire truck of emt’s came and educated me how babies do this sometimes too. Nothing scared me more than this when she was a baby.

[rajendralimbu]

I heard my own heartbeat drumming until I heard the baby cry and mom’s sigh of relief.

[Toyzoomy]

My 4 week old has done this twice. It's scary because their face starts turning purple. Mine only did it for 5 seconds, and he was already super purple. Blew on his face, nose area and he came back. You can tell when they're leading to this kind of breath holding their cries start cracking, then the next few will lead to this. I started stopping it by blowing in his face before it got to this. It sucks and it's scary.

[vickipedia]

Hearing mom’s nervous voice made me really emotional 😭

[blemblemblem]

The helplessness the baby must have felt is heart breaking

[Mylittlepanicattack]

I've watched this way too many time trying to read the comments and it stresses me tf out each time it replays

[arrriadna]

OMG! I had no idea this could happen. Glad I didn't need to find out the hard way 🙈

[Alien_Marshmallow]

Im 19 and this still happens as a natural thing to me... i dislike crying but when crying alone... all my muscles tense up and i curl up unconsciously also holding my breath. After that gasp of air it feels so much better and like a huge weight has been relieved.

[MXALOVE]

As scary as this is, luckily your brain will knock itself out and you'll hopefully start breathing again, but considering that there could be multiple other reasons, it's best to get it checked out immediately.

[xotilweovrdose]

My son had these, he’s 4 now & hasn’t had one in just over a year. He started getting them at about 6 or 7 months. In total, he’s probably had about less than 10 spells. It was truly the scariest thing, especially the first & second time. But once I was educated about it, I felt a bit of relief. However, it’s still heartbreaking to have to watch your baby go through that. Blowing in his face would usually work if I caught it in time, but if not, I had no choice but to let him go through it. It’s important to be by your child’s side & hold them because if they are standing, they will fall & hurt themselves. Once they take that deep breath, it’s a huge relief. They will take a 30 second nap immediately after but get back up & start playing like normal, that’s how my son was. I know every child is different tho. Just feel so useless as a parent when you watch your baby going through it. There is a Facebook group for Parents with Children that have Breathholding Spells & other parents share their experiences & videos, makes you feel less alone in what you’re going through since a lot of your own friends or family most likely haven’t had to experience their child(ren) have them.

[Blando]

basically when a child is told no, or a toy taken away, or if theyre startled by a loud noise. Its what I call a coniption fit

[ВалерияЖукова-гп]

Большая благодарность этой маме. Она записала это видео и другие родители будут уже морально более готовы, если доведётся это пережить.
У нас такое случалось насколько раз. И вроде я уже знаю, что это бывает и не требует лечения. Но у меня потом руки и ноги тресутся. Хотя стараюсь реагировать спокойно, чтобы не напугать малыша своей реакцией

[mechelleanderson]

My 5 year old did this from 1-3years old. The first time it freaked me out. His lips were purple, his face was red and purple and he started arching his back. Then he just passed out and woke up within seconds, yawned and got up like nothing ever happened. Very scary situation.

[alexpiper]

that is the most terrifying thing i've ever seen.

[krystalsalkowski]

Our daughter started this at 4 months old and at 10 months started to have seizures afterwards. We had up to 72 episodes of syncope in one month. She continued this for years, her last episode being at 6 years old. It is incredibly scary

[puffinboo]

Holy moly imagine getting so mad you stop yourself from breathing and pass out. Geez! Lol

[kingoscar]

This is actually very common lol
My mom said I used to do this a lot when I was throwing tantrums and eventually id just pass out and start breathing again lmfao