Scariest 60-Seconds of My Mom Life
As a mom it is our job to protect and raise our children to be the best version of ourselves. But what happens when you can’t protect them and have to watch them suffer?
Breath-Holding Spells Incident
What started as a normal night with our bedtime routine turned into one of the scariest 60-seconds of my mom life. Our 15-month-old turned purple/blue and stopped breathing for a good minute. Most of you know the toddler phase is full of expression and temper tantrums, but did you know it’s also the phase of breath-holding spells?
We never expected that to happen to us until something triggered our son into falling into one of the spells. It started as a normal wrestling match with him to get lotion and a diaper on after a bath. Then turning into yelling for my husband as I watched my baby boy turn blue/purple in the face. In and out of consciousness for at least 60 seconds trying to get him to breathe on his own was probably one of the scariest things I have experienced as a mom.
As my husband yelled “stay with me buddy, come on buddy breathe,” I didn’t know whether to take our 4-month-old out of the bath tub and call 911 or to wait it out a bit longer. Finally, the spell was over, and his face returned to a normal color. At that moment I looked up at my son to see his smiling face. I couldn’t help but grab him and not want to let go. He was ok and was going to be ok.
Now What?
After putting him to bed and continuously checking on him throughout the night, I did a little research and asked other moms for advice. Upon my research, I learned this is very common in kids ages 6 months to 6 years with the peaking ages one and two-year-olds. Knowing that my little boy wasn’t alone felt like a relief! But why was he doing this or what had triggered him to do?
Hoping this is the first and last time I will ever have to experience this, I now know what to do to snap him out of the spell quicker thanks to advice from other moms. If your child is entering a breath-holding spell, blow or splash water in their face to help them come out of it quicker or call for emergency help if it becomes worse.
I hope no other mom has to experience this but if you do, know other moms have gone through this and have come out stronger than ever! Nothing is worse than watching your baby suffer. Learn more about breath-holding spells.