ZBL has had an interesting September (16th month).  We discovered at the soccer field that ZBL can hold his breath and pass out if he’s angry or scared.  John and I had never heard of these “baby breath holding spells” but they are somewhat common and TERRIFYING.  

So this is the story: ZBL was at the park watching SPL practice soccer with his team and coach Dad/John.  He was running onto the playing area when I scooped him up.  Upon being scooped up, he arched his back and started screaming.  I thought to myself “oh, maybe he’s having a tantrum?  But isn’t it "too early” for tantrums??“  I started playing back all the parents’ group info I’d been hearing at Z’s preschool meetings and thought "oh, but these aren’t supposed to start until 18 months.  Hmmm…”  And just then, he was limp in my arms!?!?  

I called John over as I was terrified (it’s amazing how, even though I studied Biology @ MIT, all of that knowledge, including “you can’t kill yourself by holding your breath” flew right out of my brain and I was left with panic.  Thankfully John was there to help me and we quickly called 911.  They came very quickly and by the time they arrived, ZBL was coming around.  He was still groggy but awake so my heart wasn’t beating as quickly.

They took us to the ER and thankfully our neighbors took SPL to their house so we could focus on Z.  They ran tests on his heart and determined it was “just” the breath holding spells, nothing major.  But they also recognized how scary these are for parents.  

It happened again a few days later too.  This time it was at home and Z had flipped over the bar of the Radio Flyer cart that we gave him for his birthday.  He bumped his head and I think got scared so did the breath holding again.  Again, we were terrified and called 911 and they came quickly.  Again he had revived by the time they arrived. They were very kind and supportive and we worked out a plan for any future spells that might happen (thankfully none have, knock on wood :-).

Looking back, this could’ve been what also happened when he bumped his head on the first day of preschool.  It scared me because of the look on his face, not because of the distance he fell.  I think that “look” (eyes rolling back in head) might’ve actually been him holding his breath for the first time and passing out.

So lesson learned: ZBL has some new tricks up his sleeve :-).  We had made it through 7 years of parenting without even hearing of these types of episodes.  Of course, John posted it on Facebook and some of our friends replied saying either 1 of their kids had done it or they themselves had done it when they were a kid.

Grateful to the emergency responders as they were awesome!  Also grateful to my Uncle Jim who was available for phone and email consult and who provided great info and support.