Elizabeth Smith and her 29-month-old daughter, Hazel, from Tennessee. Hazel is a breath-holder. (Courtesy Elizabeth Smith)
When 3-year-old Rozalynn Cevetto has at least two things wrong -- she is
hungry, tired, hurt or just not getting her way, she looks as if she is going
to cry, but never takes the "big breath."
The first breath-holding incident occurred when Rozalynn was only 14
months old. "She would start crying, but then appear to take a big breath,
but really, she was just sitting there with her mouth agape until she passed
out from not breathing," said her mother, Sarah Cevetto, 31. a mother of
four from Niles, Ohio. "It was frightening, at first," she said.
"Her eyes would roll back, her lips would turn blue and her face would get
really tight."
Cevetto herself was a breath holder when she was little, as was her
father. In the 1980s, doctors treated her with medication for seizures,
diagnosing her as an epileptic. But Rozalynn's doctors tell her to just wait,
the toddler will outgrow it. "Breath-holding spells are pretty common in
the toddler set," said an Austin, Texas, pediatrician and author of the
book, "Toddler 411." "However,
they are not harmful in healthy children because if the child actually holds
his breath until he passes out, the body's natural mechanism to breathe -- just
like when you are sleeping -- kicks in and overrides the child's forced
breath-holding."
Even so, many parents and some child psychologists worry that the
incidents are not physiological but behavioral, and worry that a child will
take advantage of their parents' terror and learn to be manipulative. "Bottom
line," said Brown. "Don't let your toddler's breath-holding hold your
parenting discipline strategy hostage." Brown estimated, "1 in 100 or
1,000, but not 1 in 20,000" children are breath-holders. The only time
these attacks deserve a medical evaluation is if they occur on a regular basis
or happen more frequently. A small number of children actually have an iron
deficiency that can cause the incidents.
According to the online Baby Center, one of the largest online resources
for childbirth and parenting, breath-holding spells usually happen in response
to pain, fear, frustration, anger or surprise. Sometimes trauma can trigger an
attack. It can happen rarely or up to several times a day. Sometimes, a child
will turn blue and behave as if having a seizure. Most outgrow breath-holding
by the time they are 8. "While these spells sometimes occur with tantrums,
they're not willful," according to Baby Center. "Your child is not
holding her breath on purpose."
Jessica, a 33-year-old first-time mother from Virginia, has watched her
2-year-old son hold his breath until he turns blue. The attacks began just this
year. "He was having an off day and was kind of crabby," said
Jessica, who didn't want to give her last name for privacy reasons. "He
was having milk and cookies and wanted more. I told him couldn't have any. He
walked away and I knew he was mad or just upset and hadn't started to cry. "His
mouth was wide open like the wires got crossed and he didn't start screaming
because his mouth was open and stuck," she said. "I could see he
wasn't breathing and he walked toward me and fell on his knees and collapsed on
the floor like he had died."
Jessica scooped up her son and checked his mouth for choking. After 10
to 20 seconds, he started crying and breathing. But he seemed "really out
of it" for the rest of the afternoon. "It was really scary," she
said. Later, doctors found nothing wrong with him and told his parents to
"keep an eye on him." Since then, Jessica has learned to blow air in
his face to restart the breathing, a trick doctors say works. However, since
then, the temper tantrums have escalated and Jessica worries about reinforcing
the behavior. "Now," she said, "it's hard to tell her no."
Toddlers and Temper Tantrums
"My mother used to tell me she babysat for a girl 5 or 6 who was a
little monster and held her breath," said Jessica. "Her parents gave
her everything to keep her from doing it. "She thinks it's terrible and
tells me never to give in to him," she said. "So we treat him like he
is having a normal temper tantrum, but we stop and listen to see if he is going
to stop breathing."
Elizabeth Smith, who works for the federal government in Tennessee, said
that her 2-year-old, Hazel, has no control over her breath-holding spells,
which are triggered by hitting her head. The first time, she fell from a work
trailer that was sitting in their driveway. In the second incident, Hazel had
fallen off the toilet. "Her eyes rolled back, she stopped breathing and
got really red, then really white and her mouth dropped open," Smith said.
"I was so terrified, when she fell limp in my arms, I ran out in the
street screaming my child was dead." At first, doctors suspected a
seizure, but a CT scan revealed that Hazel was normal, just a clumsy child. "We should really put a helmet on
her," said Smith.
In subsequent episodes, her parents blew in her mouth and Hazel began
breathing again. "We weren't as scared," said her mother. "We
knew she would come to and be OK, but it was terrifying nonetheless." As
for Rozalynn Cevetto, she got a clean bill of health and her parents are
convinced she is not breath-holding on purpose. "Usually, it is more like
she is tired and stubs her toe and will do it," she said. "Honestly,
I worry more that she won't breathe again." By the time she was 18 months
old, Rozalynn had a seizure while the family was eating out at a restaurant.
"Rozalynn didn't want to sit in the high chair and was tired and
hungry," said her mother. "I noticed the signs of an impending pass
out, except this time, she started convulsing. Her arms were out straight,
stiff and wouldn't go down." The restaurant staff called 911 and by the
time paramedics arrived, the toddler was convulsing. She underwent blood work
and other basic tests, as well as a CT scan and stayed the night. "She was
very active and happy once we were admitted to the pediatrics floor," said
Cevetto.
A neurologist concluded that, sometimes, children "seize to
reset" something in their brains, but never do it again. That was the case
with Rozalynn. "It's been two years now and, so far, that's been
true," said Cevetto. "Basically, I had everything checked out,"
she said. "I know I used to have it [breath-holding] and didn't have it
again since I was about 4," said Cevetto. "I figure I'm OK, she's
OK."
ABC News
Please
share
No comments:
Post a Comment