What exactly is going on when a child holds his breath?

Some babies are fine when they are born, but suddenly their breathing stops after a few days, and their faces turn blue, their limbs become weak, and they even stop crying or making a fuss. This made the young parents very anxious, and they hurriedly took their children to the hospital for medical treatment. So what exactly is going on when children hold their breath? What causes children to hold their breath? Regarding this issue, the editor has checked a lot of relevant information about children holding their breath. Let’s take a look together.

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, and weak limbs. If you hold your breath for more than 15 to 30 seconds, it is medically known as "sleep apnea". 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 hold its breath. 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 still no improvement after the above treatment or the phenomenon of shortness of breath occurs frequently, the child 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 of 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.

Some children may experience breath-holding when they sleep at night, but most of them can recover on their own. Parents should observe whether their children are eating and sleeping normally, or whether there is blue color around the corners of their mouths. If not, parents do not need to worry too much, as low-weight children usually have this problem occasionally. But if the child often holds his breath, then he should go to the hospital in time, find out the cause, and receive treatment as soon as possible.