Breath Holding Spells

Dr. Greene’s Answer:

This is a typical scene: A little child is playing happily, something upsets her, she exhales forcefully with a brief, shrill cry — but she doesn’t take another breath. You wait, but she still doesn’t breathe. She looks as if she’s crying, but no sound emerges. She begins to turn blue, her face strained, and still she is not breathing. Now she is unconscious, unresponsive, limp; the sight of her lifeless body is terrifying. Now her back arches, and her blue arms and legs begin to jerk uncontrollably. Your heart is pounding, frantic…

Breath-holding spells are perhaps the most frightening of the common, benign behaviors of childhood. Desperate parents often want to splash cold water on the child’s face, start mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, or even begin CPR. Thankfully, breath-holding spells resolve spontaneously soon after the child passes out, and unless the fall hurts the child, she will be fine afterwards. The spell usually resolves within 30 to 60 seconds, with the child catching her breath and starting to cry or scream. Sometimes children will have real seizures as part of breath-holding spells, but these brief seizures are not harmful, and there is no increased risk of the child’s developing a seizure disorder. Breath-holding spells occur in about 0.1 to 5% of children, usually between ages 6 months to 6 years old.

These spells are provoked by the child’s not getting her own way. While they are triggered by a child being angry or surprised, they are thought to be reflexive, not intentional behaviors. Breath-holding is quite rare before 6 months of age. It peaks as children enter the twos, and disappears finally by about age five. The spells occur sporadically, but when they do occur, it is not uncommon for there to be several spells within a single day. Once parents have witnessed one breath-holding spell, they can often predict when another one is about to happen.

The first time a spell occurs, the parents should have the child examined by a doctor. Because breath-holding spells do share several features in common with seizure disorders, the two are often confused. In epileptic seizures, a child may turn blue, but it will be during or after the seizure, not before. Rarely, other medical conditions may look like breath-holding spells and a visit to the doctor’s will help clarify the situation.

If your doctor confirms that the event was indeed a breath-holding spell, it is a good idea to check for anemia since there is an association between the two. Treating the anemia, if present, will often decrease the frequency of passing out. The parents’ most important job, however, is to not reinforce the breath-holding behavior — either by bending to the child’s will or by paying more attention to her when she has these spells. Instead, if you are certain she hasn’t choked on something, place her in a safe spot (without giving in to whatever she held her breath to achieve), and ignore her behavior.

There is another, far less common, type of breath-holding spell, where the child turns deathly pale instead of blue or purple. These pallid spells are involuntary and unpredictable. They are brought on by a sudden startle, such as falling and striking the head. The child stops breathing, goes limp, passes out, and rapidly drains of color. Pallid breath-holding spells also resolve spontaneously. These children should be examined by a doctor, both to confirm the diagnosis, and to prescribe a preventative medicine if the spells are frequent or severe. There is an even less common type of breath-holding spell associated with a rare genetic condition called familial dysautonomia (Riley Day Syndrome); these involuntary spells occur in children who are already acting seriously ill.

Breath-holding spells shine a brilliant spotlight on one of the biggest challenges of parenting. We do not like to disappoint the little children that we love so much. Moreover, we don’t want to get into yet another battle with our children — in the short run it is always easier to give in to a tantrum than to do what we instinctively feel is best. For parents of breath-holding children, this crucial struggle of parenthood is powerfully amplified.

Most would expect that a breath-holding spell would be difficult. Most are surprised, however, to find that in many ways, the biggest challenge is life between spells. Parents become timid about setting limits or disappointing their children because of the very real possibility of provoking another spell. For all of us, love consists of having the courage to act in spite of our fear.

Dr. Greene is a practicing physician, author, national and international TEDx speaker, and global health advocate. He is a graduate of Princeton University and University of California San Francisco.

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  1. Katrina

    Question: is it ok for a child to get general anesthesia with breath holding spell condition? Bec. My son has a tooth surgery and will put him under. Pediatrician said it’s ok but I’m still worried.

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  2. Lydia

    my daughter was born not crying. before we left hospital they told me to peck her tiny feet when I would see her turn red or purple then she would began crying. she continued doing this until she was about 6 to 7 months old. The Pedatrition would tell me to throw water drops to her face and then she would cry. She is now 44 years old and she passes out. she is bipolar. I’m getting scared because she passing out when she gets upset. Doing this more times this months she passed out twice. I want medical help for her. But she blows me off. Need help or suggestions.

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  3. Patricia tippett

    My great grand daughter crys and passes out for like 2 min, her lips turn white, them catches her breath it’s that normal?, this happens every time she crys

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  4. Mamokete

    Hi Doctor my daughter is 3yrs now and when she is angry or she fell her breath go away is it normal?

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  5. Lisa

    Our 15 month old daughter did this two days in a row a few weeks ago. Very scary. Doctor said it sounded like classic “breath holding spells” and to look for foods high in iron. I immediately stocked up on quinoa, lentils and anything I could find with high iron content and it has not happened since.

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  6. Muhammad Yousaf

    Hi Dr Green I am from Pakistan my two year niece have holdings breathing problems when she weeping she hold her breath for 1 minute I so worry about her please suggest me what I do for her

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    • kashif

      i am also from pakistan my son has same condition when he is crying in islamic point of view we did the (dum) it works…..
      you will be must do this for you niece

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  7. Laura

    My little boy does this it started at 14 months and he does it on a daily basics if he hurts himself or doesn’t get his own way I try to distract him but he is so stronge headed it’s so hard to see it happen no one doesn’t understand it either .Have been to the doctors and they said he will grown out of it but am finding it hard to say no to him as I don’t want him to pass out .So anybody that dealing with this I understand what yous are going though

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    • Nicole Nallan

      Hi Laura! Yes! My 12 month old son just started this more and more in the last couple weeks really. Yesterday I called an ambulance because I was so scared. Dr said he’ll outgrow it! Scary stuff!!

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      • My

        Omg, my 12 month old just had one! Scariest experience ever! I started crying and then when she was passing out I was freaking out now she’s ok, but I’m online trying to figure out what to do so this never happens again!!

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        • Julio

          Is one of the scariest things my baby means everygthing to me and first time I saw her holding her breath I freak out and we took her to a pediatrician and he said it was normal couple months after she did it again but I just hold her forwards in my arms until she started crying again she didnt past out I think that helps a lot holding the baby forwards until it recovers because i havent found any other solution.Thanks God she is ok.

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  8. Trina Mc Intosh

    What to do when these holding spells a cure it’s very scary and hurtful.

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    • Trina,

      Have you taken your child to his or her pediatrician? Dr. Greene says:

      “The first time a spell occurs, the parents should have the child examined by a doctor. Because breath-holding spells do share several features in common with seizure disorders, the two are often confused. In epileptic seizures, a child may turn blue, but it will be during or after the seizure, not before. Rarely, other medical conditions may look like breath-holding spells and a visit to the doctor’s will help clarify the situation.

      If your doctor confirms that the event was indeed a breath-holding spell, it is a good idea to check for anemia since there is an association between the two. Treating the anemia, if present, will often decrease the frequency of passing out. The parents’ most important job, however, is to not reinforce the breath-holding behavior — either by bending to the child’s will or by paying more attention to her when she has these spells. Instead, if you are certain she hasn’t choked on something, place her in a safe spot (without giving in to whatever she held her breath to achieve), and ignore her behavior.”

      I hope that’s helpful,
      @MsGreene

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  9. Rukayat

    I was surfing through the internet base on my baby’s health and came across your foundation online. I need a good medical attention for my baby. my baby have been observe to have prolong seizure from four month and now he is twelve month. he had been under medical attention for some time now but still have the seizure. The pediatrics told me that my baby needs proper care since he still have the seizure for like 15times or more in a day. Initially it was more than that and that it’s as to do with the brain. I need your guidance on how to resuscitate my baby. I want him to be okay. if you don’t mind I am a Nigerian and presently in Nigeria
    Thanks

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    • Sabrina

      You need to look into cbd oil, look it up, greatly reduces if not stops seizures.

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  10. Anne Irungu

    Thanks for this. My little 2 year old had her first episode today for like 10 seconds. Scariest thing ever for me and her grandma.

    And you are right, the fear of another episode has us eating from the palm of her hand this evening. *sigh*

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    • Michelle

      My 2 year old son has done the same thing to me today, Iv never been so scared! He fell and hurt himself and while crying didn’t breathe in! His eyes rolled to the back of his head and he went limp! Luckily came round quickly but left me feeling quite sick. It’s a relief to read that this is quite common!

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      • Tarra

        My daughter does the same thing and she just did it a bit ago I even started crying she is almost 5 and she only does it when she is upset and crying over me yelling or something I’m glad it’s common to cuz it’s scary I’m glad I’m not alone and other moms experience it to

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      • Heidi

        This just happened to my 21 mo old tonight! She didn’t want to go in her crib and start crying and couldn’t catch her breath, turned blue, eyes rolled back and she went limp. I seriously thought we lost her! I keep replaying it in my head as I lay here awake with her next to me. I hope this gut wrenching feeling subsides soon. Scariest.thing.ever.

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        • Mia Powell

          My 10 month old granddaughter cried so hard and pass out she will be 11 months and it really scared me because I have never seen this but my daughter told me she do that they took her to the doctor but they wan’t her to see a specialize. I just want to ask this my daughter never seen a doctor when she had this baby she was born at home mom cut the cord could that have something to do with it.

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  11. Ana

    My son is 1 years n some months ….. He got so mad cus we tooked his lilpop he cryed hard that could not get his breath back n he passed out n he hit his head n I lay him down in the bed … The next this he did was that is was changing colors n his eyes where rolling back n I was yell his name n blowing on his face n that’s how I got him back ….. To breath n he started to look around n start to cry again n I just clam him down …. Am so scared I know know what’s going on my kids .. Need help to know what’s going on with him plzz help me out

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  12. Marie

    I have a 15 m.o. with this problem. Does the fainting kill brain cells?

    Thanks

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  13. Kim

    My son is 2 Months old and he has these holding breath thing he could be happy n smiling one minute then the next he would just hold his fist so tight and hold his breath till he turns bright red then blue and stops breathing till I blow in his face and he comes to again.. I’m so scared I burst our in tears my son is also asthmatic. I have a 5 year old daughter as well she never done that before.. Also my son has done this 4 times a day every day what could it be please help…

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  14. Maruf

    Hello Dr. Green,
    I am from Afghanistan my 10 days daughter has experienced breath holding problem several times mainly during breast feeding or after that. plz give me so information if it is a serious health issue or will be ok in the course of time. thanks

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  15. Debbie Jones

    My son did this from the day he was born. He was our first child and we didn’t know if this was normal or not.
    I had just gone back to the ward from delivering him and he just held his breath and went blue. As you can imagine my husband and I “freaked”. He rang and went to find a nurse and by then our son had passed out and come to. I’m not sure if they believed us until they took him for his first bath and he did it to them. He used to have several a day up until he was six, then it disappeared for a few years and re-occurred when he was 12.

    Had several turns at school and was taken to hospital He would come to and pass out straight away and do this all the way to the hospital. This went on for several weeks before we consulted a therapist who suggested this could be a valve in his throat. He was diagnosed with Vocal Cord Dysfunction (VCD). With learning breathing techniques he was able to control this problem.

    Not sure if both were the same problem but were very similar to deal with.

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    • Thanks so much for sharing. This is great information!

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    • Cassie

      VCD while common in adolescents is very rare in babies/infants. My son who was 10 mo at the time has VCD without any anotomical or discoverable causes. I was just wondering what your son looked like when he would have these spells. VCD looks similar to a breath holding spell but in the end they just faint instead of stiffening, passing out, and then sleeping. Are there any new findings since your post? We are just desperate to find out what might be going on with our son. We have been told it’s life threatening and he may need a tracheostomy.

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  16. Dawn

    I remember having breath-holding spells when I was a child, and they were most definitely not intentional. And it was actually quite terrifying. I can remember the panic and wondering why my mom wasn’t helping me, silently begging her to do something. And now my 2 year old started doing it, so I asked my mom about it. She said doctor told her all she can do is wait it out, so that’s what she did. But I know firsthand how my child is feeling when his emotions are so overwhelming that he can’t catch his breath. I have been reassuring him, hugging him and talking in a gentle voice and it seems to help get him out of it. I have read in a few different places that blowing on their face helps too so I am going to try that as well. After I take him to the doctor, of course.

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    • frank

      my child has breath holding spells I want to know will the spells affect my childs throat in later life

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    • Kala

      My son is 19 months and he has had several of these breath holding spells. The first time it happened, I thank GOD my dad and sister were there because I was so panicked that I nearly passed out too from a sudden panic attack. I knew he wasn’t choking on anything and everything flashed before my eyes. All I was thinking was oh my gosh my son is about to die!!!!!!! I screamed out to GOD to please take me instead. When he finally came to and took a breath he passed out on my chest. His little lifeless body just went limp and there we all were and I just started uncontrollably crying and holding him so tight. My 9 year old witnessed this awful event, and he is now very scared from it. Every time his brother starts to cry now, he starts to freak out thinking he will die. It was the scariest moment of all our lives.

      So this morning we were leaving church and I had to put him in his car seat and he did it again! At church!!! I nearly got out of the truck to start screaming for help but I just held him close and lightly blew in his face. He of course passed out but shortly after came to. When he came to he was just looking at me with this please help me mommy look on his face. I am in tears over my not being able to help him.

      As a mother, I wish I could just take this from him and put it on me so that he will never have to have this feeling ever again. All I can do is pray pray pray about it. To all you parents that are dealing with this awful illness, I am so sorry.

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      • Britney

        I just cried reading this. My son is also 19 mths old and he just had one tonight but the more he has them the worse them seem to get. So far I have narrowed it down to Pallid Breath Holding Spells. This is so awfully scary it literally took my migraine away! All I did was take a box of juice boxes away from him and he struck his head on the floor as he does whenever he gets mad. He will strike his head on anything close to him. So fighting with that all day long is a toll on me. Tonight as I said I took that away from him and after he struck his head he start a breath holding spell and I still panic every time because I myself have bad panic attacks and aniexity. So I gave him to his father. In the process he stiffens up so bad and arched his back backward. At that point I start crying. He does start to breath and go limp. Then comes back as a “normal” spell. It is the stuff back arching I am very concerned about. I have never in my life seen or heard of these tantrums I my life and I have seen my fair share of tantrums. I really hope I can figure out that one part I have not read anywhere in these spells. I myself feel so bad for any other parent or caregiver going threw this. My thoughts are with everyone of you.

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        • Nusrath

          Hi…even my 2 year old daughter had the same 2 days back… Still worried…plan to go for further checkup…. Pray to God…

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          • kashif

            do the dum for this condition i have same problm with my son

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        • Kristina

          Your story comes closest to mine, my daughter will turn blue her eyes roll back in her head she arches her back and n her whole body locks up, then she let’s loose n passes out, it’s very scary, have they figured anything out for you? We have been there eeg seeing a cardiologist everything, I don’t think this is a tantrum n refuse to let them tell me that I can tell something is wrong.

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  17. Rohit

    One evening, my 21 year old daughter who was also on moderate dieting went to her gymnasium. She hardly had run for about 10 minutes on treadmill when she started developing problems like heavy suffocation and vomiting sensation. Soon her face and palms turned pale and lips turned blue. Her body became cold. She was unable to stand on her feet and then fell on our hands. She was almost unconscious just uttering few words that she was losing breath. After 15-20 min of constant massaging her feet, palm and patting and splashing water on her face, she was able to come over the problem. Next day I got her blood tested and found her hemoglobin at 13.4. Other counts were also perfect. What was this episode? What could be the reasons? She had no such medical history though she breath by one nostril only, some polyp could be the reason. Any body please help.

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  18. Alicia

    My husband did this as a child. I’ve heard so many stories over the years about how my husband would do it and they would douse him with water. Well, my daughter (22m) had her first occurrence last month after a fall. We thought she knocked herself out for a brief moment. Just yesterday she fell down the porch steps (did not hit her head) and it happened again. My husband said she just didn’t breathe and then passed out. He knew exactly what it was. I never thought for a second she would do the same thing. Is it genetic?

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    • Deanie

      My parents tell me I did this as a child and now my 15 month old son does it too. I have wondered if it is something I could have passed to him or if it was just the luck of the draw.

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  19. Ashlyee

    I, along with many other parents reading this, find it hard to believe that this is normal.

    My ten month old daughter had her first episode a week ago while my sister was watching her. She got upset because my sister left the room. As my daughter started crawling toward her, my sister heard her start crying then she didn’t hear anything at all from my daughter. As my sister looked down the hallway she could see that it looked like my daughter was crying, but no noise was coming out. This would happen every so often when she gets really upset, but this time it was different and way more extreme.

    My daughter passed out and when my sister ran to pick her up, her whole body was limp and her face was blue. After my sister shook her and blew on her my daughter just snapped out of it like nothing happened. She didn’t take a huge gasp in or anything. We took her to the ER an hour or so after it happened. Doctors ran tests and said it is common. All tests came back normal.

    She just has another episode tonight, although she didn’t pass out, it was more extreme than usual. After witnessing this first hand I don’t care what any doctor says. This is not normal. No child should pass out and doctors tell you it’s common. I’m still shaking from witnessing that and it happened almost 30 minutes ago already. And the most disturbing part about this is the fact that doctors all over the internet tell parents they need to ignore this behavior! I won’t ever feel comfortable leaving my child alone while she’s having one of these “episodes”. These children are not holding their breath for attention…there’s something else that’s causing this to happen. I hope all you other parents are wise enough to not follow that advice.

    Breathing isn’t something we do consciously, therefore it worries me that maybe this happens due to something in her brain. I just pray my baby doesn’t have to go through one of these episodes again. It’s terrifying!

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    • melissa

      Hi, I watched my daughter have these episodes multiple times a day every day from 6 months until she was 4. It became so common when my sitter called me freaked out swearing she must have broken her neck or something and crying hysterically I had to remember the first time seeing one of these spells is truly terrifying. It just became so common for me to see and since doctors assured me it was no big deal, I just knew to watch her closely because sometimes she just got startled and did it. So I would just support her after she started to pass out then she would come around with this long noisy exhale and be super lethargic for a bit, but then back to normal.

      Long story short my family did a gluten free trial and months passed without my daughter having her daily spells. And then she visited family who gave her some donuts one day and sure enough she had a spell. My theory is this is something related to low blood sugar and or a food intolerance just going by what I have seen through my own children going gluten free and keeping their blood sugar stable. I am passing it on to see if it helps anyone else.

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      • Crystal

        First off, I want to say Ashlyee I completed and totally agree with you 100%. These are NOT normal, No child should be passing out like that, and the behavior should NOT be ignored. My son has these episodes since he was 2 weeks old. All the doctors tell me is that he is angry and holding his breath. But like you said, my child stops breathing over something as simple as me walking past him. He had a really bad episode last night, I took him to the ER because I want answers. The on call “doctor” tells me my 14 month old baby needs to see a psychiatrist. I had no words.

        Melissa, that is wonderful news! I am so glad you have found something to improve your daughter’s condition!! Whats funny is my child has an issue with lactose, so he has to have soy milk. I wonder if going gluten free would help him as well? I may give this a try!

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    • Marisela

      I completely agree and feel exactly the same as you! My daughter is 19 months and has just recently started with these spells, she hasnt passed out on me just yet but as im learning more about it chances are its eventually gonna happen and Im totally terrifed about that!!!! Im so unbelievably shocked to read all these articles on the topic where these Dr’s are saying to ignore this kind of behavior and that its even normal! Its only happend to my daughter a handful of times since she began having them but I am however noticing them happening even more frequently since it has started. Im so discouraged on taking her to her Dr simply because Im not trying to hear them tell me to ignore it and that its normal…..I just dont know what to do about what i feel is really in fact a far more serious then what these so-called DRs say it is…..

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    • Michelle

      Thank you for writing this response! My son does this and it scares me no matter how many times I’ve seen him go through this. He is only 8 months old, I can’t ignore him. Even if he was older, I wouldn’t be able to ignore him. My husband did this as a child and so did some of his siblings. I’m assuming genetics play a role, but I agree that it probably has something to do with the brain.

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    • Amanda

      I agree 100%. My daughter has been having these same occurrences and they have become more frequent I the last 2 weeks. She has passed out 3 times and it is very scary but as you said, I keep reading that it is normal. How is this normal? I am also afraid this could have an affect on her brain. As a mother it is very scary to sit back and wait for another one of these “normal” occurrences to happen. I wish there were some more explanations.

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    • Alyssa

      Thank you! I totally agree with you! My daugthers doctor said the same thing. So monday i am calling and making another appt!. This is NOT normal to me at all. Makes me irate. & yes i too NEVER ignore my child while this is going on. Like what the hell. I told my her dr what happens if she does it again & i cant get her to come back?! Thank GOD that has not happend & i hope it never does but i was trying to make a damn point to him! Ugh really angers me!

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    • Ashley

      Ohhhhhh. Ashlyee

      Finally a mom that thinks like me. My son did this 5 days ago for the first time ever. Terrified me. Ekg was normal, blood test normal….I was told its normal… Even the nurse said he was the second one that night. ….

      I’m a mess my son turned 2 in Oct. And this is terrifying.
      I wish they gave a better reason.

      With love from a momma who understands.
      Ashley Kayleen

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    • selime

      I agree with you, I can’t even begin to understand this idea of “ignore your child as they turn blue and pass out.” Like really??? Does the person who wrote this even have a child and know how the heck it feels to watch your child do this? My 11 month old has been close to passing out multiple times, and today passed out in my arms. I cannot even begin to express how I was feeling. I started panicking and crying while my 3 year old watched me lose myself. Thank God for my sister who was with me and helped me pull myself together. Please followup with any findings so that I can help my daughter.

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  20. Kara

    My 18 month old just had his 3rd attack like this and I don’t care how many times I’ve seen it it is terrifying. I even can tell when it’s going to happen. If he smashed his finger or bumps his head it’s always superficial — most times not even leave a bruise — but it is always pain triggered. This started about 2 months ago. I’ve, on 2 occasions, been able to distract him and get him to breathe. Is it still normal if it’s from startling pain?

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  21. Renata

    There is NO way that behaviour is normal. A well nourished, emotionally healthy child will not do such breath holding. Parents must look at themselves and research child development, nurture their kids and they will be all fine.

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    • Caleo

      Are you kidding me?!? My 4 yr old has had these episodes 3 times in her life. All of which happened after a sudden fall. She was not upset because of not getting her way, she was upset because she was in pain! You can not seriously be telling me that I need to be a better parent! She is very emotionally healthy and strives in life!! I do not believe that holding her breath is in any way something that she chooses to do.

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    • Ashlyee

      This is probably the most ignorant thing I’ve EVER read. If your child has asthma is it because the parents aren’t parenting correctly? NO, it’s because there’s something else going on. Saying that it’s because the parents aren’t raising an emotionally stable child is the most outrageous and ignorant thing someone could say.

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    • Michelle

      The first time my son did this, I was holding him and playing with him. My two year old came up and screamed. He freaked out and then held his breathe! Scared me to death! Since then whenever he has an episode, it usually happens while someone is holding him. This doesn’t happen because parents are nurturing their children.

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    • Amanda

      This is one of the most ignorant comments i have ever read. My 15 month old boy is the happiest baby ever and has two great parents and has these breathing holding spells. Maybe if you were to witness one of these spells you would keep your mouth shut. He had to have ekg and eeg amat the childrens hospital and dr said that these are hereditary!! If you were to ever see one of these spells you would know it has nothing to do with the parents!!! Watching these spells are the most horrifying thing i have ever seen in my life and i think i speak for most moms when i say this it breaks my heart everytime and it happens mutiple times a week. Fyi my son is a very well nourished little boy. Have some advice for you , have a heart and dont comment if your going to be a rude heartless person.

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      • kim

        My son now 18 months old has been having these spells since he turned one. We have taken him to cardio, ent, pulm, and neurologist. We did discover he is anemic and the iron supplement we give him has decreased the amount of spells. For the past month he has passed out every night as we try to get him in his pj’s. It can be a full thirty minutes of experiencing breath holding spells (1-3 of them in this short time) while getting him ready for bed. Has anyone experience as many spells as we have have? We had months of 1-10 spells a day.

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        • Rose

          My son is 20 months old and he has a spell nearly every day. And has since he was about 8 months old. He has started having seizures afterwards, too. He has had a total of 5 seizures, one of which did not stop, and we now give him rectal medication to stop any seizure. Has your son ever had a seizure afterwards?

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  22. Catherine madejczyk

    Help 3 month old grandson is in NICU in a PA children’s hospital. Sunday night parent feeding him and he looked to be choking and stopped breathing. CPR was done by parent and EMS. He got to a hospital and now has fluid and blood on the brain. Can this be from a seizure or holding breath or CPR. We need help.

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    • Lindsay

      Hello, sorry you have to deal with this. I hope your grandson is ok. If it is Breath Holding Spells I have started a great support group on face book feel free to join. All of us parents can help each other. Its very hard to witness but we have to remember its not life threatening. Its a CONDITION not a choice.

      https://www.facebook.com/groups/1573255799590795/

      Thank you!!

      Look forward to hearing back from you.

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    • Lindsay

      Great article. Breath Holding spells is a condition not a choice. My son started BHS as 4 months old and it now 18 months. He has a spell every other day where he gets stiff, has seizure like activity and then goes unconscious for up to a minute. I have started a facebook support group as there isnt much support. Remember its hard to witness these spells but they are not life threatening.

      https://www.facebook.com/groups/1573255799590795/

      Thank you!!

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  23. frank hood

    Can a child’s breath holding spells lead to adult sleep apnea?

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  24. Patrick Movsessian

    It would be interesting to investigate to see if children who have breathholding spells are at higher risk for developing sleep apnea as adults. Maybe there is a genetic link between these two disorders involving a dysautonomia. I know of a brother and sister, one of whom had breathholding spells and the sister had POTS which is an autonomic dysfunction. Breathing is controlled by the autonomic nervous system.
    Patrick Movsessian

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  25. Stephanie

    Hi, I am experiencing this same situation with my 12 month old daughter and it has been occuring for several months. I am repeatedly told that these spells are normal, however I am becoming more concerned. The spells are not becoming more frequent but when they do occur they are longer and worse. As a side note, my daughter was diagnosed with SVT at 7 weeks old and has had two episodes, she is on atenolol. The first breath holding episode was when she was 6 months old (in June of this year). (A week prior to this episode she was diagnosed with pneumonia). We went to the ER and they did several tests including a EEG, EKG ect. and everything came back normal. After this I was told that children do this to get their way and it is somewhat normal. The spells continued and in the past two months have become worse. About 1.5 months ago (In November 2014) she had a swallow study because she had been so congested for almost 3 months and we found out she was aspirating on thin fluids so now she is restricted to thickened fluids only and mashable foods. Two days ago (Dec. 27, 2014) she had a horrible breath holding spell that lasted at least two minutes. She got mad started crying held her breath and turned purple/blue. I picked her up and her whole body was arched back and completely stiff and doing like a fine shake, shiver type movement. Her face was like it was stuck in the crying position with no air coming out no crying nothing just froze. We took her into the kitchen and put ice on her face (as this has worked before) and then started rubbing ice all over her body because she was not coming out of it. Then she went into a calm state where it was like she was almost sleeping and just very calm and out of it, not alert. Then when she finally woke up she cried a little bit and just looked confused. We called 911 during the whole episode and by the time they got there she was fine. We took her to the ER anyways to have her checked out and her vitals remained normal. They did urine and blood cultures and everything came back normal. However they did not do an EEG for seizures. I am just concerned that this is not normal with her other issues and that all of this is related to some underlying issue. I have been researching tracheomalacia, but she does not have the stridor that seems to accompany this. Also, Im wondering if she should be tested for seizures again since the EEG was 6 months ago now. She also has a slight murmur (I can’t remember was type). She had an echocardigram done in August of this year when she was 8 months old and it had not appeared any larger from when she was 7 weeks. Her cardiologist suggested she may outgrow it and we are scheduled to go back in february. When she had the swallow study done in November 2014 (5 weeks ago) the speech pathologist suggested speech therapy to help her learn how to swallow correctly and suggested she see a pulmonologist. However, her pediatrician said lets start with the speech therapy and see if we can get that resolved and then go on to the pulmonologist. We are still waiting for the speech therapy to start. I am just at a loss with all of this and have a really hard time thinking that the breath holding spells are normal when she has all of this issues. I need a direction/advice because I just feel as if something is not right. I appreciate any feedback. Thank you for your time!

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  26. Alana

    My daughter is 4 and had her first episode 3 days ago. She has also been diagnosed with Complex Partial Seizures last year. I can’t find any information regarding a child STARTING with these episodes this late in life. Everything I read says that they outgrow it between 4-6. Does it seem odd that she had her first one at age 4?

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  27. Alessandra

    Im from peru and yesterday mi one year son had an episode. He fell down and it wad lime he couldnt cry…let the air come out. He past out and we didnt know what to do so we starter to shake him. He woke up kindergarten of dizzy and vomit. We went to the er imediately and they did a scan and everything was ok. Im Nervous because he vomites…..is this normal?

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  28. Heather Guynell Pritchard

    My one month old has something similar to this but it only happens when shes sleeping. She doesn’t go pale but she stops breathing and goes limp. I had to smack her back and she started breathing again. It scared both my boyfriend and me. She has done it twice already. My older daughter only did it once but it still scares me. I don’t know if it is relevant but I used to have seizures as an infant. Could this be what she is going through?

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  29. Alan Greene

    Rita, our website office number is 925 964-1793. There you can get information about seeing me or about making an appointment at Stanford’s Packard Children’s Hospital.

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  30. Leah

    is there a adult or teen version of this?

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    • Alan Greene

      Leah, one of my biggest concerns for adults and teens with breath holding is some version of ‘the choking game’ – which is anything but a game. It goes by many names, including air planing, black hole, blackout, funky chicken, and ghost. By whatever name, it’s the voluntary choice to deprive the brain of oxygen, which – unsurprisingly – is not good for the brain.

      There are also seizures and pseudo-seizures that can cause similar spells in adults or teens.

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      • Leah

        one of my friends daughter has this, she is 16 and i constantly see her having one of these, i think maybe she should get it checked out. she never remembers doing it, after she has an episode we get her face in front of a fan or a cold place. this usually makes her breathe better and continue breathing.

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