How often does the average infant or older child cry? There are no exact statistics, but experienced parents know that children can start crying up to 20 or even 30 per day. Normal crying is a child's normal reaction to any irritation: hunger, fear, boredom, or the inability to immediately get what they want. But what if the baby rolls up while crying? Loss of consciousness, pallor or cyanosis of the skin can greatly frighten others, but, according to pediatricians, this condition is not always a pathology and does not need treatment.

Children often cry for a variety of reasons, usually the child calms down on his own or with the help of others after a few minutes, but sometimes children begin to cry, they roll in hysterics, cannot calm down on their own and may lose consciousness against the background of such an attack.

Such paroxysms are called affective-respiratory attacks. They occur holding their breath against the background of crying. On inhalation, breathing stops, air stops flowing into the respiratory organs, due to a lack of oxygen, the child may lose consciousness, his skin turns pale or turns blue. Sometimes hypoxia provokes the development of convulsions, weakness and apathy after attacks.

Toddlers do not always understand how to properly express their emotions, so they throw tantrums. But if, with strong crying, the child rolls up and turns blue, then with such behavior he scares his parents. Consider why the baby behaves this way.

Why does the child roll up?

Such attacks occur during a period of strong emotional overexcitation, if the baby has disorders. nervous system or diseases of the respiratory system, heart, blood vessels. This condition is called affective-respiratory paroxysm (ARP). At the time of the attack, the child stops breathing for a period of 30 to 60 seconds. Such children are prone to fainting.

If a child rolls up while crying, he needs help.

Seizures also appear after injuries and falls from a height.

Roll-ups appear in children under the age of three, but can continue up to eight. The reasons are as follows:

1. Character features. Hyperactive, easily excitable and capricious children are prone to ARP.
2. Educational manners. If parents protect their child from stress and frustration, allow the baby to do whatever he wants, then the prohibition will provoke anger and an attack.
3. Emotional excitement. Fear, anger, stress and even hunger provoke an attack.

A neurologist can establish the exact cause after examining the baby.

In severe cases, during an attack, the muscles tense up, then the baby arches in the form of an arc. Without help, ARP goes into an epileptic seizure.

What to do if the child rolls up when crying?

Rolling is a reflex. With strong crying, the child may lose consciousness. During an attack, parents need to act like this:

1. Calm down yourself, do not yell at the child and do not be nervous.
2. To restore breathing, splash water on your face or pat your baby on the cheeks.
3. Distract the child after he begins to breathe normally.
4. If convulsions appear during rolling, turn the baby on its side so that it does not suffocate.

Approximately from 1 to 3 years (earlier and later options are possible - from 6 months to 6 years).

The classic description by parents looks like this: against the background of ordinary family situations (they took away the toy, forbade them to do something interesting)

the child began to cry, “rolled up”, when crying stopped breathing, did not inhale for a long time, turned blue, went limp, lost consciousness, this lasted less than 1 minute (usually a few seconds), after that he came to his senses and behaved as usual.

Sometimes loss of consciousness may be accompanied by tension or twitching of the arms and legs. After such episodes, there may be short-term lethargy. It's a typical "blue" affective respiratory attack. The second option - "pale", is less common. It is usually associated with some kind of sudden unpleasant (usually painful) stimulus. It looks like this: the child hit something, more often with his head or body, turned pale sharply, stopped breathing, lost consciousness, but came to his senses after a few seconds. Quite often, this is followed by drowsiness. With "pale" affective-respiratory attacks, there are important point, which is often overlooked by parents and doctors - it can take some time (up to 30 seconds) between the provoking stimulus and the limp, so the connection between a minor injury and a frightening fall of the child is not noticeable.

Such attacks can frighten not only parents, but also emergency doctors, and then a child with a presumptive diagnosis of "epilepsy?" even going to the hospital. But in fact, everything is not as scary as it seems. Respiratory attacks are not related to epilepsy and always go away without treatment.

It is NOT NECESSARY to save a child during affective-respiratory attacks, there is no threat to life during such attacks.

There is no need to be afraid that breathing will not be restored, this does not happen. Artificial respiration, splashing with water is completely useless, the child will come to his senses without assistance.

Modern European and American guidelines do not recommend performing any research in a typical picture of affective-respiratory attacks, because they are difficult to confuse with something else. The need for examination arises when the parents do not clearly describe the attack, or if the child has some concomitant disorders, when it is not possible to determine the situation only by describing the events. In such cases, the neurologist may face the question - was the observed condition an epileptic seizure, or a manifestation of a traumatic brain injury, or a stroke (they also happen in children, this is not only a disease of the elderly), or is it not a neurological problem at all - for example, disorders breathing can be with foreign bodies in the airways, and with bronchial asthma, and limpness can be caused by overheating, heart rhythm disturbance, or medication. Nevertheless, in most cases, adequate questioning of eyewitnesses practically guarantees the establishment of the correct diagnosis in just a few minutes.

There is one point that is overlooked by parents, pediatricians, and neurologists who are faced with affective-respiratory attacks. Many, though not all, children with ARP will have low levels of hemoglobin and/or red blood cells (called anemia) and low iron levels on blood tests. It has been shown that treatment with conventional iron preparations can either reduce the frequency of attacks or get rid of them completely. I repeat, without treatment, ARP will disappear anyway, the goal of treatment in this case is mainly to correct anemia, and the absence of seizures is rather a pleasant addition and relieving the family of stress.

Parents should know that in the event of conflicts and disagreements in the family, some children can “speculate” on affective-respiratory attacks and achieve what they want, frightening their parents with attacks. In such cases, a family psychologist or psychotherapist may be needed, but not in order to get rid of seizures, but to exclude situations that provoke them.

The traditional closing phrase. Everything described in this article looks pretty simple, but, nevertheless, there are various ambiguous situations and difficult cases in life, so any doubts must be resolved in.

Note for advanced parents looking for information on the net on their own: in English ARP - breath-holding spells.

The article was prepared based on materials from the Child neurology (J.Menkes, 2005) and UpToDate manuals.

Most often, situations when a child rolls up and turns blue are observed between the ages of 6 and 18 months, less common in children under the age of three and a little older. This condition is called an affective-respiratory attack (an attack of breath holding), occurs episodically and in most cases disappears with age without consequences.

Why does a child roll up and turn blue when crying?

Attacks of breath holding and blueness of the skin (and sometimes blanching) in young children occur as a result of a strong one, which can be caused by trauma, resentment, discontent, fatigue, fear. This is due to the fact that at the same time the child experiences a lack of air. When out of the lungs crying baby almost all the oxygen comes out, it seems to freeze with open mouth without making a single sound. This can also happen:

• short-term delay in heartbeat;
• fainting state;

But more often the attack lasts no more than 30-60 seconds, after which the child takes a breath, starts screaming and crying again.

What to do when the child rolls up?

The main thing in such a situation for parents is not to panic, so that it is not transmitted to the baby, who is already overwhelmed. negative emotions. The most effective will be directing a stream of air into the face of the child, as well as spraying the face with water. In this way, you can help bring your breathing back to normal faster. Be sure to hug the child, caress, try to calm, divert attention.

If the child rolled over and lost consciousness, it is also recommended to lightly pat him on the cheeks. In the case when the attack passes into a more severe phase, acquires epileptic signs, the child should be placed on its side in order to avoid asphyxia due to possible vomiting or slipping of the tongue.

Such seizures in children require a consultation with a neurologist, because. similar symptoms can also be observed in serious diseases.

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Some parents are familiar with this problem when their little . Physicians call such attacks affective-respiratory. Most of all, such deviations are observed in babies up to a year of life and usually disappear by the age of three.

Why does a baby turn blue when crying?

Very often, mothers do not understand why the baby rolls up when he cries for a long time and begins to turn blue. The thing is that it is during crying and sobbing that the child exhales all the air from the lungs, as a result, he freezes with his mouth ajar, cannot utter a single sound. Such attacks provoke violent emotions, this may be due to joy or a sharp upset of the child.

How to correctly define an attack?

The explanation for why the child may roll up and turn blue may be two features of the affective-respiratory attack.

First, "pale attack" due to the consequence of the pain syndrome, if the child fell, hit or even pricked. Its striking features and signs may be pale skin, it is difficult to feel the pulse, a short delay in the heartbeat and loss of consciousness.

However, it is much more common "blue attacks" , may occur due to the hysterical demonstration of children's discontent and whim. The main goal of the baby in such situations is to get, to achieve what he wants at all costs. Seizures of this type are dangerous because they can later develop into more serious ones - epileptic ones.

First aid for an affective-respiratory attack

Very often, parents are at a loss due to ignorance of how to act in a situation where the child rolls up and turns blue . Under such circumstances, you must act quickly. Most effective method in this situation, which perfectly removes from difficulties when the child not only rolled over, but also lost consciousness. First you need to send a stream of air directly to your face or spray it with water. If such actions did not help, try to pat him on the cheeks, this will help the child regain consciousness.