Every Breath You Take

As if sticking his fists down his throat until his throws up isn’t bad enough, now my younger son has developed cyanotic breath holding.
You know how when a kid is about to cry, you know they’re going to cry, they’re winding up to cry, they take a deep breath, a really deep breath, they hold it in for a long time and then let out a wail? Well it’s like that except these kids hold their breath for so long that they turn blue and pass out. It happens to 5% of children between the ages of one and five, being hurt or being angry can trigger it, and, it’s perfectly normal .
Perfectly normal? Tell that to the baby sitter, she looked as if she was going to pass out herself when I told her not to panic if it happened while she was there.
“That’s freaky,” she said.
I agreed.
I’ve seen it happen at least four times now so I’m less freaked out than at the onset. A better parent would have called the doctor immediately but after the passing out part they finally do cry and then they are fine. So I hoped it was just a one-time occurrence like when my older son was about the same age and wound up in the hospital for two nights for asthma-related breathing problems. Thankfully, he never developed asthma.
I did at least look it up on the internet (thank goodness for Google) where my son fit the description of cyanotic breath holding to a T.
The first time it happened was after a head bumping incident in the dining room. I don’t mean to sound like a negligent parent but I was surprised because frankly, I’ve seen him hit his head much harder.
Yesterday’s incident was brought on by anger. Pure toddler frustration at not being able to exit the back door while the rest of us were inside having lunch.
When I told Ken it had happened again, he’s never seen it happen, freaky things only happen when mommy’s on duty, he suggested I call the pediatrician.
I did and he told me the exact thing I read on the internet but somehow it does sound more reassuring to say, “I talked to the pediatrician and he said it’s perfectly normal,” than to say, “I googled it.” At least it does when your trying to convince the babysitter that it’s no big deal and not to worry, when what you’re afraid she’s thinking is, “next time they call I’ll say I’ve got to much homework then I’ll find me some kids to babysit who are healthy.”

song: Every Breath You Take artist: The Police