Baby breathing fast

[BR1993]

Hi everyone. My baby had his 6 week health check today and the doctor noticed he was breathing faster than he should be. I think it was around 70 breaths per minute. She didn't seem overly concerned as everything else was fine apart from suspected CMPA. She called the hospital to speak to paediatrics just to confirm that they didn't want to see him urgently today - paediatric agreed and so GP just referred us and advised we'd receive a letter at some point to get him checked.

GP did stress that it was nothing to worry about and she was just referring him to be on the safe side. She also mentioned something about him sucking in under his neck/chin when breathing which I didn't realise wasn't normal?

Has anyone else experienced this? Is there a reason a baby might be breathing fast but otherwise appear fine? Or is it possible he just naturally breathes a little bit faster than normal?

Congratulations on your little boy OP 😊

All I know about baby breathing I learnt when DS was in hospital at 3 weeks old with bronchiolitis. The sucking in at the chin/neck is one sign that they are working a bit harder than they should be on breathing for whatever reason.

Is it a recent thing? Was he just after a feed at the time? I'm sorry I have no idea what it could mean if he was otherwise well, but good you'll be getting it checked out!

I’ve had two fast breathers! Definitely around the 70 breaths per min (I used to count obsessively) but both are perfectly healthy (5 years and 2 years) It was just something they did. I asked GP but they weren’t concerned given all well otherwise.

I noticed my baby was breathing faster than normal one night. Called 111, they advised us to go to our local urgent care unit. Turns out it was quite a nasty ear infection in both ears but easily treated.

So yeah, infection can be one cause

@snowflake29 thank you! Not recent no, when she pointed it out to me I said he's always breathed like that. I feel a bit stupid, he's our first and we just thought it was normal that babies breathed a little bit faster.
It was probably around an hour after he finished his last feed.

@NeonHalo that's reassuring, hopefully it is just normal for him. I'm struggling counting then when he's awake but have checked a few times when he's been asleep and it's always been around 50 which is in the normal range. Although I've read that babies generally breathe slower when sleeping.

@whizzpopping he seems ok otherwise, apart from seeming like he's in pain with his tummy and some explosive poos which I was putting down to the milk. I'll definitely keep an eye out for any signs of infections though

@BR1993 did you investigate the breaking issue further?

@BR1993 Hi! Old post so probably won’t get a reply but did you ever get to the bottom of this?