BRUE - please read, has anyone else experienced this?

[Chester72]

i’ve just come out of hospital with my 10 week old after a horrendous experience. Yesterday, we put her in her Moses basket downstairs whilst we were down there with her and she was asleep. We checked on her 5 mins later and she was blue and not breathing. We rang 999 and eventually got her to breathe after about 45 secs but then she lost consciousness again and didn’t breathe again. This repeated until the ambulance arrived and she did a big cry. On the way to hospital she was losing consciousness again and her breathing was erratic again and she was very very pale. We had to stay in for 24 hours where they did blood tests and ECG, all of which were normal. As they could find no underlying cause, they said it’s classed as a BRUE. This is something that may happen just this once or may happen again. As you can imagine, I am now petrified. Before we left we were shown how to do CPR on a baby should it happen again. I feel like I will not be able to sleep going forward as I’m absolutely beyond scared that it would happen whilst I’m asleep and she would die. The only reason she woke up and took a breath was because we had to keep poking her, moving her, opening airways etc. The dr said there’s a chance that if this had been overnight, she wouldn’t have come round.

I’ve never heard of a BRUE and I’m wondering if anyone else has experience this and how they coped going forward with the anxiety of it all? I can’t get the image of my baby blue and not breathing out of my mind.

thank you.

My goodness how terrifying. I don't have any experience or advice but hopefully someone who does will be along soon. Sending hugs xx

I'm surprised they haven't sent you away with an o2 monitor or something! We have an Owlet sock I've used for both babies: not a medical device but might give some peace of mind and allow you to sleep a little.

That must have been terrifying so I'm not surprised you are scared of it happening again

Did they set you up with a monitor?
I had one with a delicate baby. It sets an alarm off if they stop moving.

I'm not sure how reliable they are- you either get false alarms or it's insufficiently sensitive.

It's scary. I've slept with one hand on my baby, in the cot right next to my bed. Buggered my shoulder, but reassured me.

Hi - BRUE stands for Brief, resolved, unexpected event.

They used to be known as ALTEs. (Apparent life threatening event)

To be given this definition, the medical team who assessed your baby should be confident that there are no underlying medical conditions that caused this and that it is unlikely to reoccur.

As other posters have mentioned, apnoea monitors and mattresses (apnoea = stopping breathing) are not recommended as they cause more issues than they solve - babies wriggle/roll off them all the time and parents tend to end up more stressed/worried.

At 10 weeks your baby should still be in the same room as yourself which will make it easier to monitor them/ hear them.

These events are more common with premature and very young babies but resolve with gentle stimulation /picking up or even blowing in their faces.

It is extremely frightening to experience and I can understand your concerns - it would be sensible for your baby to be in the same room as yourself/family for naps as well as sleep.

Have you been able to discuss this with your GP or Health visitor? Do you have any concerns generally about your baby's health or growth/development? It might be worth trying to speak to one or both of them for reassurance/advice.

There are clinical guidelines and more information available about BRUE/ALTEs if you google but they are generally aimed at Health care professionals rather than parents.

Thanks for this, yes they explained fully what BRUE is, and my baby is in my room with me and also sleeps during the day on me/in same room as me. My worry is the event itself was silent as she completely stopped breathing. If I am asleep, there will be nothing for me to hear to wake myself up. So therefore I’m worried that she would have this during the night and then die due to not being able to resolve her breathing herself.

I understand your worry.

What can happen after a baby 'forgets' to breath for a short while is that the CO2 builds up to a level that then this stimulates breathing (the baby may have colour change at this point) - you may have stimulated them to breathe before this happened.

I think if you still have questions it is worth talking to your GP and/or Health visitor.

I have experienced something similar and the consultant recommended a clip on monitor for the nappy which alerts if baby stops breathing. Actually it vibrates first to prompt baby to take a breath. This is the link:

https://www.argos.co.uk/product/8802932?gbraid=0AAAAAD9II9nHS8reBafe4uqUmMSH7DxpS&storeID=137&istCompanyId=a74d8886-5df9-4baa-b776-166b3bf9111c&istFeedId=30f62ea9-9626-4cac-97c8-9ff3921f8558&istItemId=ixitixtpr&istBid=t&&cmpid=GS001&$ja=tsid:59157%7Cacid:629-618-1342%7Ccid:16626818127%7Cagid:133482972654%7Ctid:pla-883775429466%7Ccrid:588974626951%7Cnw:u%7Crnd:13308160400022610169%7Cdvc:m%7Cadp:%7Cmt:%7Cloc:1007449&utmmsource=Google&utmmedium=cpc&utmmcampaign=16626818127&utmterm=8802932&utmmcontent=shopping&utmcustom1=133482972654&utmmcustom2=629-618-1342&GPDP=true&gbraid=0AAAAAD9II9nHS8reBafe4uqUmMSH7DxpS&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIupn2dGN-gIVOIBQBh1-LQavEAQYAiABEgIN1PDD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
This was the only way we could sleep at night!!! Good luck.

Our son had silent reflux and we worried about not hearing choking. We got a breathing pad for basket. It worked only one false alarm.

Yes, it happened to us with DS was 11 days old and it was terrifying. I don't really have any advice, just lots of sympathy as I was the same as you, totally paranoid about his breathing for months. He's now a bouncing 2.5 year old with no further problems but in hindsight I wish I had got an owlet sock or similar. I know all of the blurb about them making parents more anxious etc but I don't think I could have been more anxious or slept less than I did anyway.

Thank you for this. Was it BRUE that you experienced? Has it ever happened again?

I tried one of these with ds2 and had to stop using it as it woke him up every time he fell asleep within 5 minutes! He was an epic non breather.

I have to say the only thing that helped in my case was watching him like a hawk (he slept on me for the first few months) and blowing on his face every time he stopped breathing.

@Chester72 not sure if your post was to me but if so, yes it was officially recorded as a BRUE once they had ruled out other things (sepsis, meningitis etc) and no it didn't happen again. It did leave me very anxious though for a long time.

The exact same thing happened to my son when he was about 3 hours old. He was asleep on me in the recovery room when the midwife picked him up and he was blue and floppy and not breathing. They gave him some oxygen and took him up to NICU for tests. They ran loads of tests and nothing came up. They never described it as a BRUE but it sounds like it must have been. It was absolutely horrendous at the time and it was terrifying bringing him home, but it's never happened again and he's 6 months old now in perfect health. The first night at home was awful and I thought I'd never sleep again, but once I got through the first sleep and woke up and he was okay, it got easier. I was waking him up every two hours to feed because of mild jaundice so I did get constant reassurance that he was okay. Maybe for the next few days, you could set alarms to wake up every few hours and check them. Perhaps speak to your health visitor as well and see if you can get some emotional / mental health support - there is nothing scarier than what you've been through. I hope you're doing OK xx

Should you lift them upright or on your shoulder like burping and tap them OR should you lay them on one side? I’m reading conflicting advice