Apnea thing?

Hi all. Wondering if anyone had this happened to your baby. We were on the gym mat playing, we weren't doing anything exceptional just cards and words, baby was laying on her back, so flat (she is 8 weeks almost 9) at some point out of no where she spread her legs and arms opened, she kept them there still, very stiff, eyes wide opened like she had seen a ghost, she started becoming very very red but a lot red in the face, no movements, she became a piece of wood, no breathing (I was in a little panic but pretty sure she wasn't breathing or she was holding it I don't know), I picked her up after maybe 10 seconds and I tried to call her, after few more seconds and she regained movements she started to breath again face started to become pink again and everything turned to normal, she seems to be fine now. Never happened before and I literally lost 20 years of my life seeing her like that. What the hell was that? Has this ever happened to anyone?

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Was she struggling to have a poo maybe? Did she cry afterwards or show any upset? Sometimes my little girl will stretch out very stiff and go red if she can’t poo or pass gas, I would call your GP for sure though just to be on the safe side 🩷

I would probably see the gp for professional advice, my little girl used to stop breathing and it scared the life out of me so I completely understand how you’re feeling!

@Lauren no no problem with poop she had plenty today and no crying either before or after the episode

@Kez did you find out why?

We had this at 10 days old but he fully stoped breathing and went blue and floppy he was okay when the ambulance arrived (3.5 mins after we noticed him go blue we had two ambulances and a helicopter at our house and all the staff rushed in there was at least 8 of them in my house) we went to hospital and was told its called brue and they have no real info on it and why it happens but it does we got discharged for home and he kept doing it but didn't go blue until the following morning was rushed back in again and we found out to was seizures related to his milk allergy. With brue it's a brief resolved unexplained episode of stopping breathing it's usually more present in older children during tantrums but happens to infants, they don't know why it happens with infants and they can't say if it'll be regular or a one off thing that happens so you just have to keep an eye on them. We got told to use a snuzza hero at all times to monitor him until we felt comfortable not using it and it eased our anxiety so much

I haven’t had this happen, but I saw a video on IG of it happening and a lot of people in the comments thought it may be a type of absence seizure. Someone mentioned in the comments here she may have been trying to poo, also possible. I would have it checked out to be safe.

@YazmynJade yeah I've read about blue but don't think that was it as she didn't turn blue but red 🤷‍♀️ don't know if that makes a difference.

@YazmynJade oh and we have the owlet bracelet but we use it only at night. She had 3 episodes of low oxygen during the night in 3 different days (2 in march and 1 in april) but I never thought it was something to worry about because every time when the alarm went off I went to check on her immediately and she was stay there sleeping as normal, so I thought it was a misplaced bracelet or a malfunction, at this point could have been the same thing who knows)

@Veronica i think depending how long they aren't breathing for depends on their colour my son wasnt breathing for at least 35 seconds before we noticed and had gone blue and then didn't regain breath until a full minute had passed so I think that's why he went floppy along with the blue. I'm not sure what age it stops but some babies only breathe 4 times a minute when born so that could explain the nighttime episodes but either way if it happens again definitely get her seen asap x

Sometimes babies forget to breathe. Their central nervous systems aren’t fully formed and they can just randomly hold their breath. If it’s not happening too often, it’s probably fine. Obviously talk to your provider but I do not think it’s something to stress over. In the future, it’s helpful to lay them in your arms at a slight incline and to blow air in their face with your lips.

My little girl went through something sort of similar around a similar age. She would be happy and fine laid on her back and then all of a sudden spread her arms and legs out (like a star fish) with eyes wide in shock like she’d seen a ghost and then work up to a very high pitch scream/squeal. Not really breath holding for her but something completely out of the nowhere and uncharacteristic. It happened probably 5 times over a period of a couple of weeks. I spoke to the HV and they said it sounded like it’s something tummy related (trapped wind maybe) but to go to the GP if I had any further concerns.

@Veronica sorry I haven’t been online so only just seen this… they said it’s quite common for babies to do this and they should grow out of it… (not the greatest thing to hear) I had to blow in her face to shock her into breathing again, she hasn’t done this since she was about 12 weeks old and is now 7.5 months old but she now holds her breath for around 15 seconds which scares me during the night 🤦‍♀️x