Why Do Babies/kids Hold Their Breath When Upset?

Why do they? To give us heart attacks and gray hairs ;)

My 5 year old was and my 15 month old is, a breath holder. It freaks my fiance out but I've seen it so many times that I think it's kind of funny. 'Aaaand, BREATHE!!' I know the exact shade of blue they turn before breathing. I also know that if they DON'T, they pass out and their little bodies simply reset themselves. My little brother used to hold his breath until he passed out! (Probably lost a lot of brain cells doing that, and it explains why he is the way he is now, LOL!!)

I think I also make light of it because I'm very confident in my CPR and the call response time for the paramedics in my area ;)

My youngest son did this and I am a pretty easy going person so he never got a reaction from me and quit. The only thing that you should really be concerned about is the baby's tongue covering his airway when he passes out. My little guy was doing his little breath holding act, his lips were purple and everything, his dad put him on a soft bed and his tongue went and covered up his airway. He started having mini convulsions. I usually let him lay on the hard floor and throw his fit.

My daughter did this type of thing when she was 2. They looked like seizures! We were never positive if she was having seizures or what because to me it looked like she was breathing. Scared the you know what out of me! SHe did it a total of 5 times that year and never did it again.

Hi, L.:

The child needs evaluation from his ped. If it is happening this often,
it really needs to be addressed with a Doc.
Good luck.
D.

It's physiological... something they actually can't help. Some kids are more prone to it. And yes - isn't it just awful? My twin daughters both do this, still, at almost 4 years old. It's not often... but whenever it happens I have a mini heart attack all over again.