baby stops breathing

[Anonymous]

I have a friend whose 6 wk old infant stops breathing during a reflux episode. What does that mean? She is actually a friend of a friend so I haven’t talked to her yet. I am trying to get all my ducks in a row before I talk to her. I don’t think though that the baby is on meds yet. To me it sounds like a severe case of reflux. The baby also has spit up coming out of the nose.

Thank you in advance for any responses. Hopefully she will be on this site soon. This site is one of the many that I recommend. You all have helped me so much and I know you could help her too.

[hellbennt]

apnea? get to a ped GI asap!

I’d even go to the emergency room to be seen sooner…

have her read my welcome/intro…

HTH

~laura

[Anonymous]

I agree with Laura- if your friend suspects that her baby can’t breathe go immediately to the ER.

I think it’s important to clarify how she knows the baby isn’t breathing and when the episodes happen. It’s happened a few times that Hailey hasn’t been able to clear her reflux, and she’s seemed to turn colour a bit and almost not be able to breathe. When she was younger, I thought that she was having trouble breathing due to aspiration. Our doc said to look at the baby’s colour during a spell. It they’re having trouble breathing they’ll look blue. If they turn red, it’s okay because they’re getting enough air. I don’t know if this is true or not. Hailey does have trouble breathing during episodes where she vomits from her mouth and nose at the same time. I guess since both airways are blocked with vomit, she has trouble getting air, and she does sometimes turn blue a bit. But once the vomit is clear, she returns quickly. I would tell your friend to get her ped to refer her to a ped GI as well, like Laura said. Sleep apnea also comes to mind.

s&h’s mum2006-11-2 11:47:15

[Anonymous]

I have to agree with others – if your baby stops breathing, you take her to the ER immediately… if she is holding her breath, that is totally different (granted, the first time Matthew had an episode we really had no idea what was going on and we ended up in the ER… but after a while we realised he was just holding his breath because of the pain or acid coming up)

[Anonymous]

I think I want to add that don’t even go if it seems like the baby isn’t breathing… call 911. We actually had to do that once because it seemed like there was something wrong with her breathing. By the time they got here she was fine, and I was embarassed, but better safe than not.

[Anonymous]

Henry was on a sleep apnea monitor for a year due to his “episodes” of not breathing due to reflux. It’s a horrifying experience. The liquid does get caught in their throat and just blocks the airway. For the most part, they can usually clear it, but the biggest fear is for that one time when they can’t.

My thought is that if the baby is doing it that much when they can see it, what happens when the baby’s sleeping and they aren’t there or holding him/her. When we had Henry’s monitor info downloaded, we were absolutely shocked to find out he was having an average of 5-6 apneas/night!!!! I cried when they told us that. I had no clue. And to think of what chance he had of not reviving himself from them. How scary is that???

So, hopefully you can somehow get all this info to her and she can get help asap. It’s really serious in my opinion. Having been through it for a year, I understand.

[Anonymous]

deff have her go to the emergency room. after grace was born she was choking on her reflux so bad that she would become apneic(sp)

the milk would come out of her nose and she would turn purple….soo i took her to the emergency room 3x. the first time they dismissed us. the second time she had a apneic episode and all the nurses came running and saw what was happening. needless to say she got admitted. she was then admitted a second time until things got a little more under control.

the doctors always told me that she would be able to get it up and that she wouldn’t choke, due to her gag reflex. well she hasnt’ choked yet thank god. and the prevacid has helped alot.

that baby needs to be on a ppi deff. good luck

[Anonymous]

We had similar episodes and I finally got so upset and took her to the er. I didn’t leave without an apnea monitor. Also, we were seen by a pediatric pulmonologist. I didn’t know that they also saw reflux patients. He was very up to date on reflux research, started her on a good dose of ppi, and also gave us pulmocort to strengthen her lungs incase she aspirated again. He also was the one who ordered a swallow study that found out she had dysphagia. I feel for your friend and remember how helpless I felt when dd was that little!

[Author]

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