Jessica Farber was picking up her son from daycare the first time he held his breath to the point of losing consciousness. When she went to put on Theo?s jacket, the 15-month-old opened his mouth to protest. ?He did one of those big, silent cries that usually ends when they catch their breath, but it never resolved,? recalls Farber, now a mom of three. ?He ended up contorting his body and going limp in my arms. He basically turned blue and passed out.?
The daycare director (who also happened to be Farber?s mother) called 911. Meanwhile, Farber laid Theo down and was about to attempt mouth-to-mouth resuscitation when he suddenly started breathing again. The entire ordeal lasted only 60 seconds, but it had a lasting impact on the Toronto mom. ?It was a shocking experience,? she says. ?I felt like he was going to die.? Ten days later, it happened again. But this time, Theo?s body jerked and his head tilted to the side repeatedly after he lost consciousness. It looked like he was having a seizure.
In reality, in both cases, her son was having what?s known as a breath-holding spell, a relatively common phenomenon that affects up to five percent of kids, usually infants and toddlers between the ages of six months and four years. ?In my practice, there?s probably not a single week that goes by without meeting parents who are concerned because this has happened, often in the bath or when the child was crying because a toy was taken from them,? says Ran Goldman, a paediatrician and ...