Breath Holding Spells

A couple of months ago, Pea got hurt while playing with a toy. No biggie. The kiddos hurt themselves often throughout the week as they are adventurous and playful. Usually, after a brief cry and some cuddling, each is okay to go on about their playing. However, this time when Pea hurt himself, we saw him do the silent scream (you know, the one where you wait for the BIG scream to come when they finally take a breath). Only, a breath never came. Instead, he lost consciousness. It happened two more times before we finally decided he needed to be seen. Of course, all sorts of scary things ran through our minds: epilepsy, ASD, a brain tumor, etc. Scary stuff for any parent. Thankfully, none of these is affecting Pea.

He was diagnosed with Breath Holding Spells.

Breath-holding spells are brief periods when young children stop breathing for up to 1 minute. These spells often cause a child to pass out (lose consciousness). Breath-holding spells usually occur when a young child is angry, frustrated, in pain, or afraid. But the spell is a reflex. It's usually not a deliberate behavior on the child's part. WebMD

I can say with every certainty that Pea's Breath Holding Spells are completely involuntary and, at 14 months old, I can only imagine how scary it must be for him. Poor little guy.

Although we were told that he will eventually "grow out of" these spells (whatever that means) the researcher in me couldn't help but spend too much time online reading stories of parents whose children died as a result of BHS. Apparently, there is a type of BHS that is made more complicated by vagus nerve problems. In all of my research, I wasn't able to find a method of diagnosing this particular type of BHS, but when we see Pea's pediatrician in a couple of weeks, we will be asking more questions.

On a bright note, it has only happened three times in the last couple of months and we may, in fact, never see him have a BHS again.  If we do, at least we will know what it is and how to handle it.  I just wish we could explain it to Pea.

Pea looking adorable as usual.