My 1 Year Old Faints..!!!

[paulandashia]

I don't know how to explain this.  Sometimes, when my 1 year old little girl falls down, or gets hurt, she starts crying, and stops breathing.  I wish I could record it to show you what I mean.  She will sometimes stop breathing until she turns red, purple, and eventually blue, then she goes completely limp in my arms, my husbands, on the floor, in her highchair, or wherever she is.  She just faints.  It's Frightening...!!!  Completely TERRIFYING.!!!!  I cry every time she does it because it scares me SO badly.  She started doing this when she was about 8 months old.  I never did anything like this when I was a child, neither did anyone in my family, or my husbands.  Our 4 year old son never even came close to anything like this.  Everyone tells me that it's normal, but she does it SO frequently (nearly every day, sometimes twice a day or more), that it's really scaring me.  She is not doing this when she cant get her way, just if she gets hurt, or scared.  Can anyone PLEASE tell me how to help her..???

[Joan76]

When I was born more than 76 years ago, I would cry and turn blue.  Our country doctor had sent my mother into the city when he realized the delivery would be difficult and life threatening.  While in the hospital Mother noted in her journal, "Can distinguish baby's cry from others in the nursery."  

Within two weeks the crying, turning blue, choking began.  Our country doctor sent us back to the city hospital where I was treated with radium for a thymus condition.  The current view of medical science is mixed. Today few doctors believe that the thymus can be so large as to cause repiratory distress. Just another thing to check.  Some think the child is throwing a tantrum.  Clearly a two week old is not just having a temper tantrum. We believe it was one of the rare instances where there was respiratory distress.

In the 1970's the hospital tracked down my mother advising her to have me get a thyroid scan because of the radium treatment.  The scan was fine, and I am fine at 76, still working because I love it, not because of need.

Good luck.

Joan

[Chantell101]

I have the same problem.  My boy is now 18 months and started his faints from about 11 months.  He would start to cry and just dont breethe in between and then he faints. When he comes to, he is very very pale and very tired aswell. He went for an eeg but the results was negative. He does get an iron supplement for about 6 months now and he also uses Epilem(medication they use for epilepsy, although he does not heve epilepsy) but when he cries he still feints. Staring to wonder if I shouldn't take him to a pediatric cardiologist? What do you think?

[purlpleandorange]

I am 14 and I have reflex anoxic seizures but other wise i am pefectly healthy
My parents experienced the same things all of you are going through.
As my case is very sevre, i was inserted with a pacemaker when I was 18 months old
Now i can live a normal healthy life
Lots of doctors just dismissed the seizures as tantrums or breath holding so it took about 4 moths for a proper diagnosis.
However now I am living a normal life
:)

[tortor751]

My daughter is now 3 and this started around age 2.  She will turn white and faint after getting hurt and when she is sick to her stomach!  She never has any jerking or anything like that.  She has done this about 7 times now last time was this past Sunday!  She had fallen on the carpet while running through the house, I seen her and didnt think it was anything serious but about 1 hour later she told me her neck hurt and she didnt feel good and then she went limp and turned white only she didnt faint this time.  She was white for quite sometime but then came back and was ready to play!  She has had a EEG and they said it was only involuntary breath holding spells but we are now going to get her heart checked! This has never happened when she is mad or throwing a fit.  We were also told to give her Iron.  We do not have anything on either side of the family that would have been passed down.  It is very scary and with my daughter it doesnt happen the same each time which makes it hard to decide if RES is really what it is! Otherwise our daughter is a very healthy happy little girl!  We are not sure to agree its only breath holding spells or to get more tests to see if it is something else.  

[7adams]

We are raising a meth baby who began having blackouts and reflex anoxic seizures at 12 months of age. After months of frustration (we were even referred to a mental health specialist) we were referred by our new pediatrician to a pediatric neurologist in a nearby city. He diagnosed "Breath-Holding Spells with Reflex Anoxic Seizures". The term breath-holding is a misnomer, since the air is actually uncontrollably expelled, not "held". One study [DiMario et al., 1995] indicates a possible "dysregulation" in children with these episodes, which indicates to me an inability to self-regulate emotion (anger, shock, pain, surprise).

Thank the Lord, the doctor we saw prescibed a ferrous sulfate (iron) supplement to be given three times daily. Since beginning these supplements, our baby has had no blackouts or seizures, and is now 19 months old. It is not completely understood why iron works, but 51.5% of the children treated in one study had complete remission, and an additional 36.4% had a greater than 50% reduction. No children in a placebo group experienced remission. This is taken from an article written by Sarah M. Roddy titled "Breath-Holding Spells and Reflex Anoxic Seizures", which was given to us by our neurologist.

Also, most children have no more episodes by age 4, and almost all will have stopped by age 7/8.

Please note, call 911 immediately if any seizure/unconscious state lasts 5 minutes or more.

[hales25]

my son suffered with this he would hurt his self cry in some cases he wouldnt even hurt his self he would go purple blue eyes roll stop breathing flopy  didnt respond i couldnt cope as i found it to destressing so my partner or if some one who was with me would take over .
When they come around they seem a gray colour and unawere of whats goin on my son would cry and wouldnt leave myside.
As a result of my son had ecg eeg and tests done and was told he had reflex anoxic seisures most children devlelop this from 6 months to 3 tears my son grew out of it as most kids do at the age of 3 he his now a happy four year old who recieves speech therapy as we think this was the cause of the brain starving of oxygen when he was having seizeurs but its not for sure this is the cause of his dyspraxia. its been nealy two years now as my son will hit 5 in march and there has been no incident since he was 3 years  and is a happy normal preschool child who is very active and well,it can be so hard to see your child go throu this but it does stop and as loads of docs and consultants told me there has been no case and no evidence that a child will die from this as the brain automatically tells the body to breath and respond  i hope this helps anyone. my son is now a happy 4 year old and its been a year now since his last attack and i still find it hard to leave him with sum 1 as i used to be behind him follow hi every where and watch him like a hawk, please feel free to ask any questions

[lisathoms1983]

cOULD YOU POSSIBLY HAVE HER CHECKED OUT FOR THIS CONDITION REFLEX ANOXIC SEIZURES , NOT THE ONLY THING THAT DIFFERS IS THE COLOUR YOU SAY SHE TURNS. BUT IT'S WORTH CHECKING OUT. ANYWAY IT  occur mainly in young children but can occur at any age. Any unexpected stimulus, such as pain, shock, fright, causes the heart and breathing to stop, the eyes to roll up into the head, the complexion to become deathly white/grey, often blue around the mouth and under the eyes, the jaw to clench and the body to stiffen, sometimes the arms and legs jerk. After 30 seconds or so, the body relaxes, the heart and breathing resume and the person is unconscious. One or two minutes later the person may regain consciousness but can remain unconscious for well over an hour. Upon recovery the person may be very emotional and then fall into a deep sleep for two to three hours and looks extremely pale. RAS attacks may occur several times per day/ week/ month. The attacks appear to come in batches.
  
  

Unfortunately, because of the symptoms, it is known that RAS is often mis-diagnosed as temper tantrums, breath holding or as epilepsy. It is, therefore, one of the aims of the Group to bring about both professional and public awareness of RAS.

[misa414]

My daughter did this when she was 2 years old. She was running in a store, fell down and was crying so hard that she passed right out!  Scared the daylights out of me.  I rushed her to the Dr's and the nurse told me that HER daughter used to do it all the time too.  Told me that when she holds her breath to blow in her face and she should start to breathe again.  It's very scary, and probably nothing to worry about, but have her checked out by the Dr just in case.
Hope that helps some.
Melissa

[shw]

When my father was a child, he would hold his breath when he was angry until he would faint or come close to fainting. It could be something as simple as that, but it might be more. I have a son with a heart condition, and for us fainting would be a huge sign of trouble. I wouldn't mess around with fainting. Has she been examined by a cardiologist? If not, please ask your peditrician for a referrel. I wouldn't dismiss it as normal. It could be something more serious.