8 month old baby with strange breathing behavior at night

[hbdub]

We are extremely concerned with an unusual breathing behavior that our 8 month old daughter often displays while sleeping.  To date no doctor has been able to give us a clear diagnosis.  The behavior is similar to the gasping a baby might do after intense crying, as is she was trying to catch her breath.  However, our baby will periodically exhibit this breathing while sleeping, with no apparent cause.  This breathing behavior usually wakes us up out of a sleep as it is so loud we can hear it over the monitor.  It does not appear to wake our daughter up, but she is observed to gasp, whimper and let out brief cries throughout the episode.  We have never witnessed any significant color changes, so we assume she is getting enough oxygen, but her breathing does appear to pause for approximately 4-5 seconds in between the quick breaths. Sometimes the breaths are so intense she starts to snort and it is very frightening to watch.  It rarely will stop on its own and usually my husband and I have to go to her and intervene.  Usually we start by rubbing her back or changing her position (both of which rarely work), but we eventually resort to picking her up to wake her.  Sometimes she wakes easily, but, often, our attempts to intervene agitate her and she starts to cry- sometimes hysterically. However, once she is fully awake, the breathing behavior stops and she is happy, quiet and back to our sweet little girl.  We usually get her back to sleep soon after the behavior stops and she tends to have a restful sleep the rest of the night.  We have videotaped the behavior and shown it to several doctors including her family doctor, 2 pediatric neurologists, an ENT, and we have had a sleep study (which came back completely normal).  Unfortunately, no one can tell us definitively what this behavior is, but several theories have been given including obstructive sleep apnea,  GERD, dreaming/night terrors/nightmares, seizure activity, or just a normal part of REM sleep.  However, none of these seem to fit the bill completely as 1) no physical obstruction has been found that would cause obstructive sleep apnea (e.g., enlarged adenoids or tonsils or some kind lesion) and apnea was not seen during the sleep study, 2) our daughter does exhibit mild reflux symptoms (i.e., occasional gagging, spitting up, choking) and we have tried prescription Prevacid, but this did not eliminate the behavior.  We actually took her off the medication thinking that perhaps the medication was causing the symptoms as one of it's rare side effect is abnormal dreaming (see #3)  3) for a while, we were thinking that maybe dreaming or night terrors were to blame secondary to the hysterical crying upon trying to wake her and the immediate restoration of happiness only after fully waking, but many doctors have said she is to young to have such dreams  4) an EEG has been done both on its own and during the sleep study which did not show any abnormalities that would suggest seizure activity and 5) all babies and adults go through REM sleep so, if it is simply a symptom of that, then why isn't this behavior more widely described?  Any information that can be given would be greatly appreciated as we have had so many sleepless night worrying about this and we are exhausted.  We and our doctors have seem to hit a brick wall as far as diagnosing this problem and we feel as though all we are left with is to "go home, manage it as best we can, and hope she grows out of it," but, as loving parents, that is very hard to do as all the "what ifs" come to our minds.  We feel that this website may be a ray of hope as last night I read 3 postings from parents that have experienced something similar with their children but no follow up was ever given.  I sent messages to these individuals to learn about their experiences; however, I'm not sure my efforts will be successful as these postings were written several years ago.  Does anyone have any other thoughts?  

[savingsyreeta]

I have 6 kids and none of them did this.  How normal is it? I hate when the doctors say its normal.  My son does this while he is awake or waking from sleep.  I took him to the er, they did an xray and said he had pneumonia.  Gave me meds.  The holding breath thing stopped.  Then like a month later it started again.  I go back to my doctor and he says nothing is wro g this is normal oh and he never had pneumonia.  What???  Well the meds they gave me coupled with the albuterol breathing treatments seemed to help.  He says, just a councidence. Prayer is not a last resort but right now its the only thing I can do.

[Zebbez]

My 7 month old just started doing this and after a few times I woke in the middle of the night and had a 'light bulb' moment. I experience the exact same thing myself years ago after being vegan for 15 years and then going to a cheese festival and eating quite a bit if cheese. My friend told me I was having cheese nightmares. Had never heard if it before. Anyway my daughter is on solids (veg and fruit mostly as it's early days. When we go out I give take an organic squeeze pack for her to have. Some of the ones have cheese in it (potato, corn, cauliflower and cheddar or ricotta). I wondered if it was linked at all, so I made sure she had none with the cheese for a while and the breathing and whimpering didn't happen. Last night I have her some of the cheese one to aee what would happen and it happened again. Might be a coincidence but I thought I would let you all know. Maybe it's because her body is not used to dairy (same as mine after being vegan for 15'years). I can eat cheese now and I'm fine but at the start my body was obviously responding to it.

[Chris_Vale]

My daughter just did this 10 mins ago and I had to intervene, didn't wake her but just moved her around a bit and robed her back. She's 11 months now. Just now I decided to look it up keeping in mind that my chances of getting anything was down to 0! So surprised to find your post.. It couldn't have been more exact of wat I feel. She has done this a few times before and it freaks me out cuz I wonder what if am not there to wake her cuz I feel like she's strees by doing so! She can't breath very well, it's like a combination of having a nightmare and gasping for air sound! i wanna know if this is normal or a pattern that leads to something else! God forbid!  I have never talk to her pediatrian about it thinking it was a one time weird thing but now reading so many of you having the same issue Ill bring it up just to see what he says! But it looks like it could be a normal thing. But then again my son which is 5 now NEVER did it!

[girlyfunc]

Did you get any responses? My 10 month old does this and has since he was born. He has only done it 4 times (2 at night, 2 during nap).

[somethingyella]

Has anyone figured anything out?  My 11 month old does this and has for sometime.  We have ruled out any obstruction of the airway and she is on an acid reflux medication.  It is only really late a night like 3 to 6 timeframe...is that when everyone else's is?  

[nhmom324]

Hi, My son always does this early morning hours like you stated.  Have you gotten a diagnosis?

[CATEYE33]

My almost 6 month old just did this about 20 minutes ago and it scared the heck out of me. Im so tired but I'm afraid to go to sleep because I fear that it'll happen again. The last time this happened was about two months ago. He goes to the doctor in two days, so I will definitely be asking the Dr about this.