Holding breathe whilst crying & lips turning blue

It’s usually harmless. When I worked with infants as a community RN I had a few clients that had this. You can’t do much aside from comfort them and lay them in their side. https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/breath-holding-in-babies-and-children/ Blowing air in your baby’s face is recommended, safe, and doesn’t hurt. When you blow into their face they may startle and interrupt an involuntary “breath-holding spell”. It seems as if your GP is aware, I’d follow their advice and await to see your paeds

thank you Gigi I just need some reassurance I have done my research but any advice does really help as I’m a worried mum.

Oh yes! My son did this, from about 10 months. Absolutely terrifying. He was referred to cardiology for an echo but that was just a precaution and absolutely fine. They were blue breath holding spells. He’d go blue, floppy and then come to with a big gasp. It’d be seconds but feel like a lifetime. He grew out of it. We used to blow in his face (which sounds mean but worked) to break the “hold” and that usually stopped it escalating.

My son went through a phase of doing this he even held his breath for so long he passed out (I rang ambulance) they told me it’s behavioural but if he doesn’t take a breath in around 20 seconds to call 999, it’s absolutely terrifying but he has grown out of it now, best advise I have is ring ambulance anytime you’re worried and always try keep as calm as possible I found blowing into his mouth a nice strong blow of air helped and also temp change so I’d step outdoor or infront of the fridge as that usually made him catch his breath x