6 month old, strange noises

[mwatson11]

My daughter is 6 months old-- about a week ago (after eating a small slice of tomato and throwing it up), she started making a high pitched sound when she inhales. It seemed to only happen when she was excited, but now it seems more frequent and more random. I wouldn't call it wheezing, as my understanding is that is with an exhale and she does not seem uncomfortable. My sister told me to watch her chest to see if it retracts when she makes the noise, as this would tell me if she is struggling to breathe-- it does retract. I called the doctor on call last night and spoke to both a nurse and the pediatrician (though not her doctor). The nurse suggested a tomato allergy that has made her throat swollen. The pediatrician said this was unlikely and that from my description, there was no emergency. I am going to call her pediatrician in the morning and see about going in. Has anyone else had any similar experience? Is she just experimenting with her voice? Is she actually having trouble breathing? I was told to watch for blueness around her mouth and nose and I have not seen anything. She also does not have a fever but does have a slight cough-- but she is teething and has tons of saliva, so that may be why. (I also have a cough right now).

[MusicianDad]

Personally I would get it checked out. Lack of blue around the mouth doesn't mean there isn't a problem, it just means if there is it's not immediately life threatening. It is possible that when she threw up the tomato she aspirated some and it's causing some inflammation in the lungs.

[tzs]

i posted the same question a couple months ago when my dd was the same age. i pretty much knew she was just trying out her sounds but it WAS freaky....like she was in distress. and she started doing it several times a day.

alot of people wrote in with the same experience and the best description i got was "sounds like she's inhaling/gasping after surfacing from being underwater for a while." that confirmed it for me that it really was just a new funny sound for her. although she's since cut it out my hubby mentioned it at her 9 mo wbv at the ped agreed it was just a fun noise.

[mwatson11]

tzs-- That is a great description and exactly what it sounds like! My husband is more worried than I am and I don't want to go to the Dr if we don't have to; of course, I don't want to risk anything happening to her either.

[2boyzmama]

She could have irritated her larynx when she vomited and it's slightly inflamed now.

Also, google laryngomalacia and watch some youtube videos. She could have a mild case of that.

[Mawood]

My daughter is 25 weeks old now and she started doing this inhaling noise about 6 weeks ago. At first she did it a lot and now she only does it sometimes bc she has a new favorite sound (raspberry mouth. I was concerned when she started it too but she always looked happy while she was doing it.

[mrs.t]

Ditto the pp, she could have irritated her larynx when vomiting. She also could have irritated her vocal cords. It should heal if that is the problem, without any ill effects.

[mwatson11]

Went to the ped this morning and everything checked out fine. Said it could be reflux and to just keep an eye out for anything worsening.