How to Handle Harmless Spells in Children

Learn more about spells in children. The breath holding spell is a harmless type of spell and Dr. Hands shares how to handle the situation when it occurs.

How to Handle Harmless Spells in Children The next topic is a very interesting topic and it concerns what we call spells. We’re going to talk about breath holding spells and then we’re going to talk about choking episodes and more severe spells that are felt to be acute life-threatening events. For a pediatrician, these calls are very common. Parents whose kids have passed out, have turned blue, have had a major episode that they construe as life threatening. They ought to do hysterical calls often late at night or they often en route to the hospital as the parents have taken off to the emergency room. The first thing is the easiest. They’re not just breath holding spells. This is precipitated by events such as falling down, being frightened, being frustrated, being angry. But usually it’s at age six months to two years. They almost always disappear by four to five years. You can have as often as one to two a day. You can have as little as one to two a month. It’s very typical. The youngster cries holds their breath, turns blue and passes out. About a third of them then develop a few muscle jerks and twitches. Therefore it is very easy for the unsuspecting parent when they first see these episodes to think that their child is having a seizure. It also is unnerving for the parents every time it happens because they never quite sure it isn’t a seizure even though they know about the episodes and they’ve been told about them. The child is usually breathing normally however, during the event and may become fully alert less than one minute after the spell. A brief hug and everyone goes about their business. What we preach is our relaxed attitude, the best treatment is the parents having knowledge of what they all are, the harmless nature that they are and just relaxing, going about their business, hugging their child after the event and just not worrying about it. Prevention, very hard to prevent but obviously avoiding issues or frustration in that where you can is the best prevention. The solution is the child is just lying flat. That increases blood flow to the brain, the child wakes up in the evening. These are truly harmless but very common phenomenon that are very scary to the patients and the parents.