Does this sound like Sandifer's?

[Anonymous]

Hello all, I’m a newbie here. I’d like to say it’s a pleasure to be joining you all, but… well, you know

So I was wondering if any of you would be able to give me your opinion on this. I have a little girl who is 11 weeks old, and since she was born she’s had about six or seven of these odd “episodes”. The first happened in the hospital about two days after she was born, but no one witnessed it except me. In fact, no one has ever witnessed it except me, so I’m not sure any of the healthcare professionals I’ve spoken to understand what I’m going on about.

The last episode happened at about 3am on Saturday morning. I was woken by my daughter apparently choking silently – her eyes wide, staring at me, her body arched backwards as she gulped and seemed to fail in her attempts to breathe until Mr Scallie upended her and patted her firmly on the back. This is what always happens – the arching, the silence, the absence of breathing and the staring eyes. Every time she’s been patted on the back she’s been sick (from her mouth and nose) before letting out a yell, but this time recently she wasn’t sick. She does suffer from reflux although it’s not severe.

We were referred by the GP straight to paediatrics at the hospital, and she was seen by two paediatricians. I described what was happening, and the doctor said she was having a response to the discomfort of the reflux by arching her back and holding her breath. He said it often happens in refluxy babies. I was prescribed Zantac and Infant Gaviscon.

He didn’t actually mention Sandifer’s – this is something I’ve picked myself up from from t’internet and I think this is what he was describing. The trouble is, in all the research I’ve done on Sandifer’s it doesn’t say that babies hold their breath when they do it. She arches aplenty when she’s feeding, but these episodes seem different to me. Up until yesterday I’ve thought she was choking because of the silence and the aparent inability to breathe.

So, has anyone else experienced similar?

[Anonymous]

Hi there. To begin with, my daughter holds her breathe too when this is happening to her. Sometimes she will cry afterwards, but sometimes she almost lets out an ‘I’m frustrated’ sound after. And often she’ll make a ‘hicuup’ noise, it seems like its an involuntary noise being pushed out from her. The Dr told us that this is what they call a ‘bronco spasm’ attack. The not breathing thing, is supposedly what their bodies do. The brain recognizes such a pain, and it shuts everything down for a moment so that the baby doesnt feel so much pain. I dont know if this is true, but I’ve read it often, and it totally makes sense.

When I read your story, it really does sound like Sandifers. I think its harder on us as moms to watch our kids go through this. I hate watching Turi spasm up like that. But then after wards, she’s 100% and you’d never know that something had been wrong.

Do you ever notice after an attack that your little girl is SO gassy afterwards?? I can hear her guts just a gurgling, and she has just huge burps once it all seems to pass.

I hope this helps!

[Anonymous]

Sounds like what used to happen to my dd. She would turn blue until she cleared the reflux. It’s scary.

The thing is that Sandifer’s is a pain response, so she may need a stronger med. I’d personally ask for a good dose of PPI. Check out http://www.marci-kids.com so you have an idea what to ask your doc for. You can also ask for an apnea monitor if you think that he’s not breathing. Good luck.

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