What causes babies to hold their breath?

While we are infants, our bodies are susceptible to a variety of illnesses. Newborns often experience sudden breath holding within 2 to 20 days after birth. Especially premature babies or small-sized full-term babies. The main symptoms are sudden respiratory arrest, purple face, weak limbs, and even possible respiratory arrest. So what causes this condition? There are several situations.

The main reason is that the newborn's brain is immature, and when it encounters cold stimulation or suffers from diseases such as pneumonia, it may experience breath holding. When you hold your breath, the exchange of blood and oxygen in the lungs stops, causing hypoxia in the body. If the hypoxia lasts too long, it may be life-threatening.

Therefore, once this phenomenon is discovered, if there is no medical staff present, parents should immediately adopt artificial assisted respiration (place your hands on the child's back, then gently support or put the child down or pat the child's feet at a frequency of about 40 times per minute to stimulate breathing, and pay attention to keeping the room temperature at 26℃~28℃. If there is no improvement after the above treatment or the child frequently experiences breath holding, he or she should be sent to the hospital for treatment immediately.

Parents do not need to panic when the child suffers from breath holding attack: it is best to lay the child flat on the bed, unbutton the collar, and keep the airway open; blow gently on the baby's face to reduce brain hypoxia; pat the soles of the feet or back; pinch and press the child's Ren Zhong (the center between the nostrils and the upper lip), Yin Tang (the center between the eyebrows), He Gu (the base of the palms) and other acupoints with your fingers to help the child recover as soon as possible; you can also press the chest to quickly improve hypoxia and help restore breathing.

Avoid hugging your child tightly or forcing him or her into a ball, especially around the neck, to avoid the serious consequence of suffocation. In recent years, some scholars have suggested that breath-holding attacks in infants and young children are related to iron deficiency. Clinical tests and control studies found that most children with breath-holding attacks were iron deficient, and after 1-3 months of iron supplementation, the breath-holding attacks completely stopped or the frequency of attacks was significantly reduced, and serum iron indicators returned to normal.

The main reason why babies hold their breath is due to stimulation from external factors. Some external factors can cause physical illness and thus this symptom. However, when a baby is holding his breath, there are many treatment methods. Artificial respiration is the most direct one. Parents should always pay attention and send their baby to the hospital for treatment.