Scary Breath Holding Spells Turns Kids Blue, Leaves Parents Alarmed

Oct. 23, 2009 — -- Last Wednesday, 1-year-old Stephen Albert was playing under the wide arm of the couch in his family's Cheverly, Md., home. But as he moved to stand up, his head collided with the couch arm and he sat back down again, hard.

"All of a sudden, he let out a wail," said Stephen's mother Jessica Albert, 31. "He was crying, so I picked him up. He wailed for a few seconds and then all of a sudden, he went very still and silent and I noticed his eyes rolling back in his head... He wasn't breathing and he was a gray color."

Stephen awoke in a few seconds and a trip to the emergency room confirmed that he was fine and had no long-term damage. But Stephen had experienced what is known as Breath Holding Spell (BHS) -- a brief period when a young child will stop breathing.

"It terrified me," Albert said. "It's a good thing that it wasn't more serious, but it also scares me now every time he bumps his head that he'll stop breathing again."

BHS occurs in about 5 percent of infants and toddlers up to about age 5 -- children aged 1-3 are particularly at risk -- and is usually associated with a need for attention, to express emotion or, in rare cases, to indicate an underlying medical condition.

"[BHS] falls into the category of attention-seeking behaviors when a child is very, very frustrated and upset and has not learned socially appropriate ways to express themselves," said Rahil Briggs, an infant and toddler psychologist and director of the Healthy Steps child development program at Montefiore Medical Center, in New York .

Other attention-seeking behaviors children may exhibit can include banging their head against a wall or vomiting on command.

But breath holding is a real eye opener, for parents and doctors. "It works because it's scary," Briggs said, adding that children often turn blue, purple or gray as they hold their breath. "It's striking to look at until you understand the mechanism behind it."

British opera singer Charlotte Church told the U.K.'s Daily Mail that her 2-year-old daughter, Ruby, suffers BHS when she has tantrums, which frightens her and her husband, rugby player Gavin Henson.

"She will hold her breath until she passes out -- the first time it happened it was absolutely horrendous," Church said. "Every time it's happened, she's been fine afterwards, but it causes Gavin and I a lot of worry."