Moms of SPD kids, I'm curious about something from DS's infancy

[InMediasRes]

My DS did this crazy thing as an infant that I was never able to figure out. Lately I've been thinking it may be sensory related, but I don't know. My ped at the time totally blew us off, so I never really got an answer.

What he did was something we jokingly called "purple baby", which, in reality, was totally horrifying. He did this from about 2mo to 6 or 7mo, but it was much more frequent at first. Essentially, only when moving while strapped in the car seat, he would clench his fists, hold his breath, hold his arms out to each side of himself, turn deep purple, and his whole body would tense up. His eyeballs would bug out of his head and he looked like he was clenching his jaw. It usually only lasted maybe 10 seconds. Sometimes there would be grunting involved. It was truly horrifying when he did it since he would stop breathing completely. We figured out towards the end that if he looked like he was about to start, I could hold his hands tightly against his chest and he would stop.

I asked my ped about it at the time, she said he was probably passing gas. Uh huh. I've never ever heard about a baby doing this just to pass gas, and it was only right when we would start driving in the car. Plus, he wouldn't actually pass any gas or have a BM any time around when he did purple baby. He stopped doing it about the time that I was able to stop swaddling him (albeit very unsuccessfully for a while).

He has some gravitational insecurity and he always hated the car seat. He is a seeker, some touch sensitivity, sound sensitive (this is the worst). Just curious if any other kiddos ever did this or something similar and if you thought it was sensory related.

He is 3 now and loves car rides, thank goodness.

[mamaChe]

My DD is undiagnosed, but definitely has some sensory issues.

She does something similar, although not from infancy.

It started as a sort of handflap that we noticed for sure around 1 year-- she would get excited and do this tight little dance with her hands in front of her face. Now it has evolved to holding her palms against her nose and smooshing her face, wiggling her fingers, and doing some weird breathholding/deep deep deep breathing in combo. It's weird, scary, and catches us off guard. She says she's "stretching" and does it when she's going to sleep/waking up, upset, or excited.

[InMediasRes]

Wow, 119 views. It must be more weird than I thought!

I was thinking about it some more and realized that he still tenses up really tight, clenches his fists, and grits his teeth when he's super excited or upset, like you said. Maybe it's just a personality thing.

[HarperRose]

I thought seizure. That's just *weird*. Sorry, I know that's not helpful!

I wish I had something more useful to say.

[2boyzmama]

Originally Posted by HarperRose

I thought seizure. That's just *weird*. Sorry, I know that's not helpful!

I wish I had something more useful to say.

I also was going to wonder if it was some sort of seizure activity.

[InMediasRes]

A seizure, really? Would that happen only at a specific time and under specific circumstances though? I'll have to read up.

[flitters]

I have never heard of context specific seizures (though I am far less knowledgeably about the subject of seizures than many of the posters here). What I thought when I read that was some sort of self stimming behavior.

I have heard of breath holding (but usually in somewhat older children) and
I know there are other forms of self stimulation that are more common in infants. (Perhaps google self stimulation in infants).

When we filled out our history form with the OT, there were several questions about behaviors in infancy. I don't recall that breath holding was on the list in that category, but there were several about body tension. In our experience, ds would get very rigid and arched whenever we moved him and it didn't occur to me that this wasn't normal until we picked up another baby (then another and another) and they felt like jell-o.

[mountainsunshine]

I was thinking anxiety. My dd hated the car as an infant. Maybe the noise of it or the movement or transition freaks him out and this was his version of a big deep breath. If he doesn't do it anymore I wouldn't worry.

Sarah

[ShadowLark]

Originally Posted by mountainsunshine

I was thinking anxiety. My dd hated the car as an infant. Maybe the noise of it or the movement or transition freaks him out and this was his version of a big deep breath. If he doesn't do it anymore I wouldn't worry.

Sarah

Yep - sounds like a SUPER major example of a startle reflex. Poor kid! My guy did the whole crying in the car bit, but once he got big enough to look out of the windows, he outgrew it.