Breath holding occurs when some babies or toddlers are frustrated, angry, scared or just playing startled. They may involuntarily hold their breath. Babies may cry and turn red or blue in the face before passing out for up to a minute.
They may just open their mouth as if to cry before losing consciousness. Don’t worry. There are no long term harmful effects linked with this condition. Just remember they’re not doing it on purpose. So punishing them for it will have no effect. Having iron deficiency anaemia or a family history of breath holding can increase the chances of breath holding occurring. But the amount of episodes can be reduced by finding and avoiding the triggers that cause this behaviour in the first place.
And rest assured, most children will grow out of this habit by the age of six.
