Kinking - What's it all about??

[Henda]

Hello everyone

My DS who is 11mo has done this "thing" since he was about six months old.

When he's over-tired, and cries he stops breathing, goes completely blue, stiff as a board and his eyes roll back in his head. He will normally take a big deep breath in right at the last minute and everything is ok again.

Yesterday he did it to the point where he PASSED OUT!! I absolutely S**T myself, although as soon as he did lose consciousness his body's automatic reflex kicked in and he was ok almost immediately.

My Mum says i used to do it a child, she even has a name for it, (kinking) and i've spoken to a few people who say older children do it deliberately, but he has done it from such a young age, i can't imagine he knows what he's doing???

Sometimes a slap on the back will snap him out of it, but yesterday NOTHING worked. I wonder if anyone has any resolution to this strange thing.

Thanks, i know that was a bit long

what does your GP say?

I haven't asked yet, rang nhs direct this eve, they didn't really know what to say

My DS used to do a much less violent version of this (just holding his breath when he was having a huge cry, but never to the stage that your DS does), and the first time she saw him do this, my midwife just blew into his mouth and he started to breathe normally again. Might be worth a try, but may not work for you. Hope you find a solution, it sounds very distressing for you .

ooh, that's an idea

you're not wrong!! It's SO stressful, the feeling of panic is awful, and i'm as cool as a cucumber normally!!

Well good luck - I hope you find something that works . Even though you intellectually know they're going to be OK, it must be so frightening.

ah... thanx

There's a small piece from Junior Magazine about it here - older babies often do it as a form of attention seeking, but this piece discusses a 12 week old baby doing it too. Hope it's reassuring for you.

Crikey how scary
Vaguely from distant memory when ds ( now 12) was a little lad, my friend back then.. her ds who was almost a year old, used to hold his breath and often passed out
She was advised to use frozen peas on his back to force a breath as breathing hard on him or at his mouth was something he learned to resist.
I am not sure if this is till "recommended" but it did stop her ds doing it.

gosh thanx wigwambam

oh my goodness that article has reassured me no end, thank you so much

I hope so!!

A friend's ds did this. She was told to throw a little cold water on his face, to bring him out of it. Not sure if that would be recommended now, though!

someone suggested that to me, but i thought that if he took a sharp intake of breath, he might choke!

my dd1 did this, stil ldoes at times, she is 5, has never passed out tho. you often hear us saying 'breathe......' when she is having a bad strop.

yep, thats the standard line, but in a very loud and strained panicking sort of way!!

breathe... breathe... BREEEEEATHE!

lol thats it!

breathe N, c'mon breathe..... BREATHE!!!

I left him with a friend one day, her mum was there, he decided he was gonna frighten someone else for a change, her mum wanted to ring an ambulance! She's a mother of five and says shes never heard of it. But my mum is so laid back about it, says all the babies in our family have done it. Little bleeders