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After the Sobs
When Little Ones Hold Their Breath By Shannon McKelden
While it's always a good precaution to see your pediatrician after the first episode just to ensure there is no physical reason for the breath holding, it's unlikely they will find anything wrong.
"When [my daughter] started doing this, a bit before her first birthday, we took her to the doctor," Atkins says. "[The physician] said that she would ... probably outgrow [the behavior] between the ages of 2 and 4, and that it was nothing to be concerned about in her case."
For the Atkins family, it was reassuring to know there was no medical reason for the behavior, as it continued to be fairly common. "For a while she was breath holding and passing out multiple times per day," Atkins says. "Now (she'll be 2 in June) she does it once or twice a week."
Once you have assured yourself that nothing is seriously wrong with your child, then what? Most important is to make sure they are safe from physical harm during an episode. Injuries from falls are more concerning than the episodes themselves. Once their safety is assured, then how should parents react – or not react – to breath holding?
"Protecting the child from harm is the first response," Dr. Shubin says. "Then, it has to be treated as an unacceptable behavior, with a behavior modification approach used, i.e. ignoring to extinction unacceptable behaviors and positively reinforcing desirable ones."
But some children do use holding their breath to get their way.
Brenna Lyons, a mother of three from Haverville, Mass., found this to be the case with a toddler for whom she provided childcare. This particular child had learned that holding his breath frightened his mother, and he used the behavior to take control of meals and what he would or wouldn't eat.
Lyons, however, had some experience wth a niece who stopped breathing for medical reasons and knew what to expect. She offered to help, and his mother took her up on the offer.