Why does my infant stop breathing?
I have a 7 week old baby boy. Over the last week there has been 5 separate nights in which i have heard my son almost sound like he is choking, when i go to his crib his mouth is open and he is acting as though he is trying to breathe but can’t, his eyes roll like they are going into the back of his head and his face becomes red, he does not start breathing on his own, I have pick him up wake him up to get him to breathe, two days ago he did this 6 times in a matter of 10 minutes, I took him to the ER. They hooked him to a monitor and admitted him. Over the next 24 hours they continuously told me that this was normal for babies to do and that if i let him go he will start breathing again, however he doesn’t and they just do not seem to listen to that but rather keep telling me that this is normal, I have spoken to many people family and friends that have children and all of them have agreed that this is not normal behavior,. The doctors including his pediatrician who works in the hospital I took him to tell me that its periodic breathing and they have pauses in their breath,. They have not witnessed one of these episodes he is not pausing I know when he is pausing but during these episodes he is trying to breathe but cannot during deep sleep, this only happens at night and only when he is in a extreme sleep stage where it is nearly impossible to wake him. I asked that he be sent home on a monitor to reassure me that he would continue to breathe during his sleep, they refused. I continued tell them that I was very concerned for the health of my baby and they just kept repeating that this was normal. Than they told me that it might be acid reflex, My son’s grandmother looked up about it and me and his dad read the symptoms of what a typical baby is like and my son does not fit any of it not even closely. My boyfriend has a niece and nephew with acid reflex and has seen what they were like first hand and agrees that our son is nothing like that, I explained this to the doctor numerous times and they said that he just might not be typical, I asked how they knew that he would breathe on his own if he hasn’t yet and they said because that’s what typical babies do. A little contradicting if you ask me, he does not have a typical case according to doctors but he is suppose to react to it the same way typical babies do.; No tests were done for my son to see if there was a neurological or respiratory problem, he is now home and I am afraid that if I do not know he is not breathing will he be able to respond himself. No one i have spoken with including medical personnel of the ER and emergency squads have agreed that he should not have gone home without a monitor,. Ultimately he was discharged with a diagnose of Acute Life threatening episode. If it is life threatening why wasn’t proper precautions taken to insure there was nothing more serious than reflex considering they said it “possible reflex” and were not sure. I need to know of any other cases such as this and what I should do from here, I am not satisfied that there is nothing wrong as I have been told, I am scared for the life of my child and feel that these issues are being ignored by medical personnel
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The thing with alot of medical personnel is that if the condition is not present while they’re observing then they assume you must be a hypochrondriac or just an over protective mother. If you have insurance you can demand that more tests are done just to ease your mind. Ask them to do an x-ray of his chest. As a parent you must be persistent.
The first thing that you should try to eliminate, as the possible cause, is any environmental factor, such as mold. To do this, just move, with your baby, to some other home, or hotel, for a period of not less than ten days. Make sure that, in the new home, you wash off all wood, metal and plastic parts of the crib, and that you change the mattress cover, and all other fabric parts that come in contact with your baby. Also, make sure that your baby is bathed, immediately, in the new home, to wash off any possible mold particles, and dressed in new baby clothes and diapers, both from unopened packages that were not exposed to any possible mold in your old house. Towels used on the baby, should also be unexposed to your old home. If your baby improves, then the cause of his illness was environmental-probably mold. If you want to be positive, after ten days move back to your original home, to see if he gets sick again. Make sure that no one smokes in ANY of the homes that he lives in. Make sure that there are no candles burning. For an extra precaution, do not use any baby powder that can also irritate his lungs. The only doctor who always explores environmental factors, as a possible cause of illness, is the fictional Doctor House, on T.V. Real doctors are too uneducated in environmental causes of illness, to ever mention it to you. Good luck, and God bless you. Email me, anytime, for follow-up. josephsalowitz@yahoo.com
they have motion sensor monitors you can buy and put under the crib matress and an alarm will sound if he stops breathing for a certain amount of time. That might help you to feel safer. My son would stop breathing and then all of a sudden gasp for air and be fine, but there were also times where i heard him breathing really fast and then he would just stop and i had to wake him up too.