Does anyone else have a child who faints?

[McButtonwillow]

Ds1 (8) has fainted about 4 times since he was aged 4 and its usually triggered by something that scares him for example the sight of blood after he cut himself (only a small cut) or his mouth bleeding after a tooth came out.

He's been fully investigated by the paediatricians at our local hospital who have concluded he's just sensitive to certain things (ie blood) & there's nothing to worry about.

Tonight another tooth came out, it bled a little but he coped quite well. He was a bit pale and sweaty but after sitting down for a bit and some reassurance he was fine.

We try hard not to make a big deal out of it when it happens, I don't want him to become unduly anxious about it but secretly I do find it quite stressful, always having to be vigilant to any injury no matter how small and always making sure have a basic first aid kit on me no matter where we are.

Has anyone else any experience of a child who faints? Is there any advice/tips for how to help him cope with this as he gets older without making it a massive issue for him. Is this something he may grow out of?

DD is 2.6 and has fainted about 6 times. It always happens when she gets herself really wound up with crying. She cries and breathes in, but then doesn't breathe out and passes out.

Have had her checked over and it's common at her age, apparently. She does it less now than when she was younger. We've only had one incident in the last five months. That was because she fell over and gave herself a fright.

Apparently I used to pass out a lot as a child. But because I realised that if I held my breath I'd faint. So if I couldn't get my own way, I'd just keel over.

Dd used to faint when shocked -blood would do it

She grew out of it around 8 and now wants to be a doctor because she loves blood and guts!

Hi, I used to faint a lot as a child, I think the first time was when another child cut his finger and there was a lot of blood- mum thought I was asleep & stepped over me apparently lol, then when my 1st tooth came out- I fainted & wet myself on the train!! Also when my grandma had had a fall & was in hospital and her whole arm was black & blue, sometimes when I just felt very unwell with a temperature, I was checked out at the children's hospital and they found nothing wrong, I think I was just sensitive & had a lot of empathy!! It happened less and less as I got older although I wouldn't rule it out if I saw something medical now as I am squeamish (& soon to have a baby -not a good combination I wouldn't imagine!!) I think also if you have low blood pressure this can cause fainting too. It's good to be able to recognise when it's going to happen and mayb take a layer of clothing off to cool down, breath deeply & focus on something else in order to control it. All the best xx

Thanks it's reassuring to know there are other "fainters" out there. I think his blood pressure is fine, it's definitely a reaction to blood/scary triggers. I'm blaming dh's side of the family as they tend to be more squeamish, it can't be me as I'm a nurse and used to blood and gore!

I faint! Even now as an adult Sharp pain does it to me (like a stubbed toe) or an injury. It's caused by a drop in blood pressure, and as mine is already very low it doesn't take much.

What helps is keeping very well hydrated at all times (dehydration makes it worse) and recognising the early signs of a faint - in my case black cloudy vision.

I did have CBT as a young teenager which helped. It didn't stop it happening, but I learnt not to worry about it. I just sit/lay down (even in public ) and wait it out.

My advice would be not to worry too much about avoiding his stimulus, just concentrate on getting him down quickly and safely and acting 'normal' about it.

Ha, just read you are a nurse! Teaching grandma to suck eggs...

My big, burly, forty-something DH faints at the sight and thought of blood.

My dd used to faint a lot - it was reflex anoxic seizures, and it sounds like your ds may have the same thing. With her it happened when she was scared or upset. Her heart would slow down, reduce flow of oxygen to the brain and she would faint. She usually came around within a couple of minutes. Unless a kid actually looks like they're purposely holding their breath, it's pretty likely that anyone who faints as I describe above has RAS. It would be worth looking on the STARS website www.stars.org.uk/ - it was really helpful to us in teaching people (nursery, school etc) how to deal with it, as it looks pretty scary - dd used to go blue when she fainted, which was rather upsetting for people who weren't used to it. Dd has pretty much grown out of it now - a lot of kids do once they reach age 6 or so. We had to be very watchful of her - they happened a few times a day, so we had to be careful eg if she was in the swimming pool or if one happened when she was eating. Hope this helps.

DD2 faints all the time (recently it's been about 8-10 times a week ). She has POTS but also psychogenic faints when she gets stressed (or her brain gets overloaded).

Have a browse round the STARS website for lots of info about different types of fainting.

In DDs case she only sometimes knows she's about to keel over, but when she can, she squats down or sits down if there's somewhere to do that. She has a care plan at school as it's quite a severe problem and the school got a bit stressy initially. We just have to be very matter of fact about it all, and try to focus on what she can do rather than what she can't. But it's hard having to always be aware of where she is, what's she's doing, and what her stress levels are like. And at the same time not fuss over her, and let her have the freedom a 15 year old needs. It's a difficult balance between letting her take control of her own condition, and nagging her to do the things she's supposed to do .

So not much help, but a lot of sympathies.

All mine do/have done. I used to faint in road safety films and people talking about blood/fractures etc. I'm now an Emergency Medical Technician so I must have grown out of it. Mine faint if they're too hot and DD sometimes does with bad period pains.

run4it yes I think he does have RAS, in fact it was mentioned by his paediatrician and your description matches, he goes blue too. I'll have a look at the STARS website, it's good to know your dd is growing out of it.

IShall sorry to hear about your dd that must be stressful. The last couple of times ds has fainted he's just managed to tell me in time for me to catch him. He knows that as soon as he feels dizzy it's important he gets down on the floor if possible and we've managed a couple of near misses when we've got him laying down quickly and it's passed. I agree about being matter of fact about it, we're really careful to not treat it as a big deal when it happens.

lifeis there's hope for ds yet if you're now an EMT!

Thanks everyone I am feeling more reassured.

RAS is one of the fainting things that most people do grow out of during primary school afaik, so that's reassuring. The Stars website has presentations from previous patient days, and they have a "regular" speaking about RAS (whose name I can't remember offhand)- he showed a video of a small girl having a RAS and it looked terrifying from an outsiders point of view, particularly if you didn't know that the DC was actually ok during the whole thing. And they can be out for a scarily long time as well.
Look on the Education section on the stars website, they have lots of advice for schools about how to manage things (they were incredibly helpful with DDs school, which is partly why she's managing to be there most days).

I'm off to have a look now- thank you! I did have to have words with school a few months ago as he had a papercut which was bleeding slightly & they sent him to the bathroom on his own to wash it. He was fine but I put it in writing that they must never leave him alone no matter how small the injury is. I'm more worried that he will faint and injure himself in that scenario rather then the actual fainting iykwim.