Breath Holding Syndrome!

[BeanieG]

Help. My 22 month old has breath holding syndrome. He only does it when he's accidently hurt himself. Never after a tantrum. He goes to cry but no sounds come out then goes blue and sometimes has a seizure and then stops breathing. His heart is still going, thank goodness. I have to do rescue breaths and this always brings him round. He can sometimes take 45 mins to totally be back to normal. He has had a EEG which was normal and I'm now waiting for further tests. Has anyone got children that this happens too? What do you do?? Any advice would be much appreciated...

My dd2 did this (not to the point of seizure), held her breath till she went blue. I was told to blow strongly in the middle of her face when she started to do it and it was amazing how well it worked. It seem to shock her out of it and worked every time (for us anyway). Sometimes had to blow more than once, but if something that simple can help (and it can't hurt) it's worth a try. Good luck. As a side note my dd2 does have a form of migrane/epilepsy - don't know if there is a conection.

hi, my ds does this. He was very prem and has mild cerbral palsy. I don't think that's connected but saying this just to be complete. He does it when he hurts himself which he does a lot as he falls a lot.

Anyway what do we do. First we try not to worry.

Second we are trained in baby cpr because he was prem. I have used it once when he was a few days old, not for breath holding but I know I do know what to do if I have to.

third blowing does nothing for DS, we tried it the nursery tried it, nothing

shouting sometimes works, as it gives DS a shock

as does tickling

as does ignoring him until he passes out and then comes back as instinct kicks in.

We were told it does then take time to come back to normal, he then gets clingy and odd, but sooner or later comes back

epilepsy has been ruled out.

He is now 24 months corrected and it is getting better

I am sure that this too will pass

Oh poor you, my DS did this and it's absolutely awful. The dr told me that they generally grow out of it by 3 or 4 and that was true for us. My ds passed out for about a minute each time - the dr said he would start breathing again without intervention as it's a natural reaction, a system re-boot sort of thing. The first time it happened it felt like 100 years but by the last time I was calm enough to count and made it 53 seconds. He was always very clingy and quite often very sleepy after an episode and I just let him sleep, even if it wasn't a normal sleep time. Sorry this isn't much practical use, but hope just knowing it does go away might help. I even almost got used to it, or at least wasn't in a complete shrieking panic every time. I hope yours grows out of it v v soon.

Apparently I used to this when I was a toddler - whenever I hurt myself. Mum took me to the doctors who told her just to ignore me. I did grow out of it at about 3/4 years old.

My 18mo DS does this too, although sometimes it's prompted by a tantrum/getting very upset about something. I find it's usually brought on by him being overtired (as that tends to make him quite irrational and/or clumsy and more likely to hurt himself) so I make sure I put him down for his nap as soon as he looks like needing it, even if that's not at the "usual" time.

I posted about this a few weeks back and got some great advice, will see if I can find thread to link to...

Thread should be Here. HTH

My ds2 did this too, like thereonthestair my ds2 was also prem & also has mild CP
It was awful, he would pass out & we would ahve to give him a few breaths to stimulate his normal breathing response.
He gre out of it by about the age of 4.

Sorry if this has been posted in the wrong place... I'm new!!!!