Freaky toddler behavior

[emilyash]

I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with this type of stuff, because my son, 19 months, has done this stuff a couple of times and it freaks me out:

-three times (once at ~10 mos, ~12mos, and last week) he has almost fainted: the first 2 times I saw, the third (last week) was at daycare. He almost lost his breath from crying or whining and his lips turned blue and he almost passed out, after we startled him out of it, he was limp and lethargic (but responsive and interactive) It's not happening during major temper tantrums (we've had those too), but it seems times of emotion: the first time I didn't pick him up when he wanted, the second was after a shot at the drs office and the third was in his highchair whining for something at daycare...I don't know as much about that episode because I didn't see it.
I did take him to the Dr after last week's episode, and they think (based on my explanations) that it's breathholding (unintentional), but as a precaution wanted to send us for some cardiology testing because in rare cases a heart defect makes it more likely to happen. I don't think this is the case, but of course I want to rule out all things to make sure it's just stubborn redheaded boy behavior.

-One other thing he's done a few times that's weird is at the dinner table when he's being silly he does this weird little thing where it looks like he's bearing down to push (wide neck, hunched shoulders, grunty face) and he shakes his head back & forth (no-style) and makes a silly noise (like Uhhuhuhuhuhuh). He stops when you tell him to and laughs. It just seems/looks weird- enough that it freaks me out. But he acts completely normal both before and afterwards.

Otherwise he is a completely typical little guy, super social and cuddly and happy and active. We have a well baby drs visit tomorrow, and I'm going to ask about this stuff, but I wondered if anyone else has experienced this. I'm wanting to hear "it's normal wacko kid behavior- don't worry!"

Thanks.

[breanna31]

I am not sure if it's the same thing or not but my daughter holds her breath when she is really mad about something. She has been doing it since about 10 months, she is now almost 19 months. She goes in spurts where she will do it a lot and then not do it for a while. Last week she did it a ton. With her it is usually when she doesn't get her own way or if something is taken away from her. She cries a certain way and then goes silent with her mouth open and her face and lips turn bright blue (not even exagerating). Once this happens I pick her up and try and talk her down and rub her back until she snaps out of it and most times she lets out a final scream right before going limp and her eyes roll around a little bit. It is awful and I hate it but I have gotten used to it. I talked to her doctor about it and he said it is a breath holding spell and she just knows what she wants and has a bit of a temper. I did some reading about breath holding spells and it sounds like some kids completely pass out and may even have a seizure. So far she has not had one that extreme but she has come very close to passing out. I was worried about the lack of oxygen causing problems with her development but her doctor reassured me she wouldn't have a problem with that. It sounds like your son is going through the same thing. I am not sure about the whining in the high chair thing though, ours have always been during a complete meltdown. I hope you get some reassurance and that it just quits happening. I know how awful it is to watch!

[2xy]

My DS1 did this between the ages of 1.5-3.5yo. He actually would turn grey and pass out, and when he regained consciousness he would be very crabby and clingy for quite awhile.

They tested him for seizure disorder and heart disorders, and everything was negative. The very last time he started to do it (usually he would be very angry about something and would cry/scream until he ran out of breath), his daycare provider distracted him with a cookie.

I agree that it's scary.

[sapphire_chan]

I've heard that some people have luck with blowing on the child's face to get them to take a breath.

[sundaya]

This sounds exactly like my DD's(20 months) breath holding spells, except I'm not clear if your LO is passing out, but mine was. She would get really upset, get a certain pitch to her cry, as though she couldn't catch her breath, turn grey, and go limp. She started having them at about 11 months, when hurt, or with extreme emotion, such as temper tantrums.

Here's what has worked for us. The minute she got the tone of crying that we knew meant she was going to have a "spell", if DH was home, whoever had her would pass her off to the other, who would immediately begin to distract her. If it was just me, I would go into another room (usually the bathroom or kitchen). We would try really hard to focus her on something else. The last resort was to splash water on her face, which always worked. After about a month or two of doing this, it started taking a bit less to distract her, and she started passing out less often.

We haven't had to do any distraction, and she hasn't passed out in 3 months now, fingers crossed that it doesn't start back up tomorrow! She has, in that time, however, had plenty of temper tantrums and minor injuries that would have caused her to have a spell previously. I think, though, that she kind of figured out how to distract herself. The hard thing, and reason we took this approach, was that she was so clingy and sad, crying for an hour or more, inconsolable, after having a spell. It just seemed like it was so traumatic to her, and out of her control. The only advice our pedi gave us was that she would outgrow it, around 4-7 years old, and just to ignore the behavior. We ignored that advice....

[swd12422]

We didn't have any breath-holding, but DS occasionally did the scary-weird-what-the-heck-is-he-doing-thing and then would stop when told to and laugh at us. It was a game to him. I never did figure out exactly what he was doing, but I'm guessing he was creating some kind of strained feeling in his body that he was learning he could control on his own. (We've since graduated to spitting, and plugging our ears while singing, yelling, chewing.... and laughing the whole time...)