Breathe Baby Breathe!

It was a normal evening, Daddy-man and I are making dinner and Baby-man is busy being little chef when out of the corner of my eye I see Baby-man playing with the lazy Suzanne, obviously needed more spices.

Then he starts to whimper and cry. I look and he has his finger stuck between the door and the side of the lazy Suzanne, impatient like his parents he jerks his finger out, scraping it as he does and begins to howl. I pick him up, he’s not bleeding but he is crying pretty hard. And then there is silence. I look at his face, his eyes wide and terrified, mouth agape, he isn’t breathing. He is crying in silence with no breath. He begins to turn pale, then purplish blue, he can’t breathe he isn’t breathing, his body becomes ridged his lips change color. Thirty seconds past maybe more. Daddy-man and I try and stay calm, but my heart begins to race, Braden breathe, I say gently who am I kidding, Braden BREATHE. He gasps for air and continues to cry. He’s pretty hysterical after the event. And no wonder. Could you imagine crying and then all of a sudden your body stops breathing on you? My son has BHS episodes. ( To learn more about BHS go to http://www.postgradmed.com/issues/20...2/jennette.htm ), They occur when he gets hurt or falls; they are completely involuntary and absolutely terrifying. Only 5% of all children have them, which is good news for most parents, and for those that do experience this phenomenon, nothing to prevent or stop the episode for happening.

The good news is after Baby-man calms down, he is happy and we eat dinner and all is well. As if the whole thing never happened, except for the scratch on his finger. It’s enough to want to put him in a bubble though. I always worry what if he really gets hurt. They say the baby will eventually breathe but how long do you wait and what if they don’t. The thought makes me sick. Luckily, BHS usually stops being reported after age 3. I hope I don’t have a heart attack before then.