Infant Breathing Difficulties
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Any kind of breathing difficulty your infant or child experiences can be a scary time for parents. Infants have some common unusual breathing patterns that may or may not be true problems, so it is important to figure out what is really a difficulty caused by illness and what is not. Knowing what to expect and when to call the doctor can help you assess what to do when you suspect breathing difficulties.
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Newborn to 2 Months
Pediatrician William Sears offers some terrific guidelines on his website to help you assess your infant’s breathing. The first step in figuring out what is going on is to determine if the breathing difficulties are coming from the nose or chest.
Most babies have a stuffy nose for the first several weeks of life. This stuffiness may interfere with sleeping and feeding, and is a concern for parents, but is usually harmless. Some things you can do at home (and do call your pediatrician for more help if needed) is to squirt nasal saline or breast milk into the nose and then use a bulb syringe to suction the nose.
You can find saline spray at the drugstore, and you probably took a bulb syringe home with you from the hospital. Sometimes this syringing can make the baby cry, causing more congestion, however.
Saliva and regurgitated milk can cause chest congestion. Try holding your baby upright and letting him sleep upright in your arms or in a carseat so that the congestion can drain. It is also common for newborns to have panting or rapid breathing, which is disconcerting to parents, but if it comes and goes and your baby has no other signs of illness, should not be a cause for worry.
Labored breathing can mean your baby has a serious respiratory illness. If your baby is truly wheezing – that is, he has a caving in of the chest and labored breathing that persists for hours in spite of being in an upright position, your gently clapping him on the chest, or exposing him to steam -- then call your doctor.
Infant Breathing
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Breathing Difficulties in Infants and Children
Infants and toddlers experience breathing difficulties that may or may not be related to illness. Regardless, they are frightening for parents, but knowing some causes and solutions can help alleviate the fear factor.
A hoarse voice and labored, raspy breathing and a bark-like cough with fever probably mean your baby has croup. Croup is a common viral respiratory illness that usually doesn’t require an emergency visit to the doctor, but warrants close observation to be sure that breathing problems don’t become severe.
Audible wheezing and labored, rapid breathing in the absence of the signs of croup may mean pneumonia, so check with your doctor regarding treatment.
A high-pitched sound when your child exhales and labored breathing may indicate asthma, so check with your doctor to determine what to do.
If your child has not been diagnosed with asthma, then you may find that turning on the shower and letting the bathroom get steamed up, then holding him upright in the steamy room while clapping him on the back and chest will help relieve his breathing.
Check with your pediatrician for expectorant dosage and whether it is advisable. If you cannot provide relief for your child’s labored breathing by trying these at-home methods, taking your child to an urgent care or emergency department is advisable since there may not be much your doctor can do to assist via telephone.
Watch and Be Prepared
Knowing what to do in the short-term to assist with your baby’s breathing can help alleviate some of the worry inherent in infant breathing problems. Try to assess what is going on, whether it is caused by illness or is a “normal” breathing change, and be ready to take your child for medical attention if necessary.
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my son is almost 6 months old and this morning we awoke to him making a speratic fast breathing sound. It sounded like he had just stopped crying for a while and just couldnt catch his breath..but was sound asleep. When i woke him up it took about 10 min. for it to subside and was back to normal and has been the rest of the day. any comments will be appreciated.
Josh we just experienced the same thing with our 1-year-old. She woke up crying, and when we went to comfort her she was gasping for air. There has been no history of breathing problems of any sort. It sort of sounded like she was hyperventilating, and she is still not back to 100% 20 minutes later (but is sleeping soundly)
My daughter was just born March 26, 2010. In fact today she turned 2 months! In the past 2 months she's quit breathing twice, but i rubbed her back and she took a breath. Ever since she was born, even to this day every time she breaths you can see it on her throat and her ribs, like she's gasping for air. The doctor's think she will out grow it. It doesn't seem normal to me. My son never sounded like that at all. It sounds as if she snores when she asleep. If you could hear her you would think she was struggling when she breaths. We go to the doctor this Friday. Do you think I should get a second opinon? Im desperate to find some answers. Thanks!
HI ELIZABETH MY 1 MON OLD SON IS DOING THE SAME THING AND THE DR TOLD ME THE SAME AS U BUT CALLED IT SME BIG WORD I CANT REMEBER PLSE LET ME KNW WHAT HAPPENS ON UR NEXT DR VISIT
My grandson was born in april. Since then he has had a real problems with feeding, crying and irritability, arching back, snoring and sounding dreadful when he was breathing.
Thankfully a peadatrician saw him when he was 6 weeks old and said he had got "Sielnt reflux" put him on ritadine (anti acid) diormphdine ( medication that breaks down the food). and changed is milk which is prescription based but can't remember what they call it.
A week ago his breathing got worse and it was taking an hour to give him 20z of milk.
We took him to the GP on thursday of this week at 6pm, by 6.10pm an ambulance was at the surgery with a resusitation team and we were rushed to the hospital.
The doctor administerd a steriod to help with breathing, gave him oxygen and for 24hours he has had his oxygen level measured.
He is still in hopsital and they have diagnosed his problem as querry "Congenital Laryngeal Stridor syndrome"
Aparently when a baby is born for some reason their laranx isn't formed properly and if they are not well, or pickup a virus the airway becomes inflamed and this then becomes a problem for them to breath and feed.
He will need an endoscopy (camera down his throat) to confirm this syndrome.
Weirdly the breathing diffculties start to get worse around 2months on ward.
The good news is that they do eventually get better but it can take up to 18months for the flaps on the laranx to form.
Any mother that is having similar problems with their babies, please insist they are refered to ENT specialist.
My 1 year old has some chest congestion one month back the doctor said that too much cough is congested that a nebulizer might be required...he asled me to give those medicine...ut to my surpirze he did't give cough syruo to him but an antihistamine. this month in Aug again he has same issue..we showed him to another doctor and that doctor said tht he is having bronchitis..my son does't show any symptoms like that..some times i feel he has breathing difficulties...some times he coughs at night at other time he coughs after crying ...is he really having astham?? the doctor said he is wheezing but its not necessarily be asthama...
All moms, if you think there is something wrong and your doctor says "ah there fine" don't stop, ask to be refere to another doctor. It saved my daughters life. I went to my daughters ped 7 times, being told I was over reacting. Finally I demanded him refer me so Sacramento, after 14 days there I again demanded to be transferred to Stanford. There they saved her life. You are your childs advocate. You no more about your child them your doctors.
My daughter is going to be 1 in a week.When she was 2 months old she was diagnosed with acid reflux. She was put on zantac and we were told that she would probably grow out of it by the time she was around 8 months old. Not only has she not grown out of it; her symptoms have gotten worse. On top of that for about a week now her breathing patterns have changed. She hyperventilates and acts as if she isnt getting enough oxygen. This happens at least 20 to 30 times a day now!Also randomly at night she starts to hyperventilate and panic scream cry like shes in pain but she is sleeping. She doesnt wake up during it at all and it lasts up to half an hour. We have been to the ER on mulutiple occasions and seen her pediatrician. Everytime we have either been told to wait it out or there is nothing that they can do. Every day it gets worse.. All we want is for our daughter to be happy and healthy and for a doctor to actually do something to help....
My son in 3 months old and has been haveing problems breathing since he was 3 weeks he also has reflux. because his o2 count is 98-100% and hedoesnt have a feaver they keep telling me he is fine. they are treating us like this because we are having insurance problems. these problems started with Chester County hospital when he was born. they put the wrong date on one of the forms and this is causing his fathers name not to appear. Since his fathers name is not on the birth cirtificate. they will not add him to the insurance until his fathers name appears on the form. I can garunteee that if we had insurance he would be getting better treatment. I am at a loss as to what to do. we keep clearing his nose and he is still having a hard time. They tell us if he continues to have a problem breathing or continues to grunt after we clean him out that we should bring him to the er or dr right away well thats what we have been doing and they still don't do anything to help him. its pretty sad that these people don't wnt to help an infant.
My 5 months old seems to be breathing fast at times then normal. Sometimes she sounds very chesty and nasaly but the doctors say they can't hear anything. Any ideas or suggestions plz??
My son is almost three months old and while he was at daycare yesterday he tried to stop breathing and the daycare provider got ambulance on the way. When he got to hospital they had him stabalized, but was doing the breathing for him. He is now breathing on his own with no help. The doctors have no explanation as to why this happened. We asked to be sent home with some kind of breathing monitor so we could be a little more at ease but they say it isnt necessary. I dont understand how im supposed to sleep at night or concentrate at work with this always in the back of my mind. Please help!!
My 6 month old keep breathing really hard & fast like he is hyperventilating, then he holds his breath for a second or 2 & starts to hyperventilate. He keeps doing this very regularly over the last few days & I'm just not sure what to do? The doctors always treat me like a panicy mother whenever I've taken him in to see them about other things & I don't Want to seem like I'm wasting their time. Does anybody think this is normal or would it be best to get him checked out?
My year old son is beathing hard and fast we js came from the hospital at ten for having fever cough and running nose what do I do?
My son is almost 2. He has been sick for the past 3 weeks. It started out with a very bad cough and wheezing. That went away and now his nose is stuffy and has a continoues cough and is breathing really fast. it is at least 150 breaths per min. he just went to the doc monday. Any suggestions? Please help.
My daughter was born June 22, 2008. On July 10th at 1am she completely stopped breathing arched her back and started to turn blue, me and my husband were giving her rescue breathes and putting cold water on her trying to get her to breathe again. She was extremely aware of the situation staring at us with a look of "help", the doctors told us that some children have this happen. I have had multiple inncidents to where she coughs extremely hard or breathes exteremely fast and hard, and she breathes with her stomach? Idk I'm taking her to a children's specialist tomoro but I was wondering if anybody else has had anything similar
2011 excuse me. My other child's year of birth is 2008.
tracy elkins 3 years ago
my one year old son always has his tounge out and pants but he seems perfectly healthy should i be concerned?