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Face is pale
Blacking out
My body is jerking
Becoming listless and unenergetic
Pale skin
Blackout for a second
Seizures
Not seeing your symptoms? No worries!
What is Breath Holding Spells?
A condition sometimes seen in young children. Spells most commonly occur around one year of age with a range of six months to four years. Up to 15 percent of cases may have an initial episode below the age of six months. The child may stop breathing for up to 1 minute, causing them to lose consciousness and tone. Although alarming to parents, this condition is common and can happen in healthy children, who will grow out of it as they age. Triggers for spells include frustration, pain, or fear.
Typical Symptoms of Breath Holding Spells
- Seizure
- Fainting
- Child stopped breathing for a while after crying
- Seizure for the first time ever
- Bluish or pale skin
- Lost consciousness, gone limp, or had convulsions after crying a lot
- Less responsive or fewer facial expressions lately
- Looking pale or unwell
Diagnostic Questions for Breath Holding Spells
Your doctor may ask these questions to check for this disease:
- Have you experienced any seizures?
- Have you fainted recently?
- Did your child stop breathing after crying?
- Was that your first seizure ever?
- Do you have any bluish or pale skin?
Treatment of Breath Holding Spells
Treatment is unnecessary, and the condition disappears as children grow older. Preventing triggers like frustration, pain, or fear will help to reduce the frequency of spells. It is important for caregivers to understand that children do not do it on purpose and to speak with someone if they have difficulty coping.
Reviewed By:
Unnati Patel, MD, MSc (Family Medicine)
Dr.Patel serves as Center Medical Director and a Primary Care Physician at Oak Street Health in Arizona. She graduated from the Zhejiang University School of Medicine prior to working in clinical research focused on preventive medicine at the University of Illinois and the University of Nevada. Dr. Patel earned her MSc in Global Health from Georgetown University, during which she worked with the WHO in Sierra Leone and Save the Children in Washington, D.C. She went on to complete her Family Medicine residency in Chicago at Norwegian American Hospital before completing a fellowship in Leadership in Value-based Care in conjunction with the Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management, where she earned her MBA. Dr. Patel’s interests include health tech and teaching medical students and she currently serves as Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Arizona School of Medicine.
Yoshinori Abe, MD (Internal Medicine)
Dr. Abe graduated from The University of Tokyo School of Medicine in 2015. He completed his residency at the Tokyo Metropolitan Health and Longevity Medical Center. He co-founded Ubie, Inc. in May 2017, where he currently serves as CEO & product owner at Ubie. Since December 2019, he has been a member of the Special Committee for Activation of Research in Emergency AI of the Japanese Association for Acute Medicine. | | Dr. Abe has been elected in the 2020 Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia Healthcare & Science category.
Content updated on Feb 19, 2025
Following the Medical Content Editorial Policy
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Symptoms Related to Breath Holding Spells
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Link to full study:
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.08.29.24312810v1References
Hamed SA, Gad EF, Sherif TK (2018). Iron deficiency and cyanotic breath-holding spells: The effectiveness of iron therapy. Pediatric hematology and oncology.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30351985/Leung AKC, Leung AAM, Wong AHC, Hon KL (2018). Breath-Holding Spells in Pediatrics: A Narrative Review of the Current Evidence. Current pediatric reviews.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30421679/Williams J, Cain N (2015). Case report of successful treatment of pallid breath-holding spells with glycopyrrolate. Pediatrics.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25869368/