My 1 Year Old Faints..!!! Please Help me.!!!

[paulandashia]

I don't know how to explain this.  Recently, when my 1 year old little girl falls down, or gets hurt, she starts crying, and stops breathing.  I wish I could record it on video it to show you what I mean.  She will get so upset, that she stops breathing, and not because she wants to, but because she CAN'T seem to be able to catch a breath..!!!  She will stay in this Histerical state, unable to take a breath for anywhere from 10-15, to up to 25-30 seconds..!!!  She turns red, then purple, and eventually blue, then she goes completely limp in my arms, my husbands, on the floor, in her highchair, or wherever she is.  She just faints.  It's Frightening...!!!  Completely TERRIFYING.!!!!  I cry every time she does it because it scares me SO badly.  She started doing this when she was about 8 months old.  I never did anything like this when I was a child, neither did anyone in my family, or my husbands.  Our 4 year old son never even came close to anything like this.  Everyone tells me that it's normal, but she does it SO frequently that is can not POSSIBLY be normal..!!!   (nearly every day, sometimes twice a day or more) it's really scaring me.  She is not doing this when she cant get her way, just if she gets hurt, or scared.  And she looks so completely terrified when it happens.  Can anyone PLEASE tell me how to help her..???

[Deanna L Aftab Guy, MD]

This is not an endocrine problem but sounds very suspicious for breath holding spells, induced by pain or anger. The important thing to do is have your pediatrician made aware and consider seeing a neurologist if it persists so that seizures are ruled out (rarer but much more important). My 13 yo daughter did this, cried, turned blue and would sigh as she passed out briefly, freaked us out. I found that if I blew in her face at the time she was ready to yell and hold her breath she would take a breath and be ok, needless to say we were blowing in her face and yelling breathe breathe breathe! She "outgrew" it by age 3-spoiled thing! But this did not keep me from bothering everyone of my pediatric neurology colleagues about what they thought!
Have her checked, hang in there, it may be a sign of what her teen years are like stinker!
Hope it all is ok