“What spell?” You may ask. Sounds like a script from “Charmed” TV show. I admit I never heard of the term “breath-holding” until it happened to my toddler son last weekend.

There are many things that we DON’T know until it happens to us or someone close to us. Here’s one such case.

My son (slightly more than a year old) was having fever over the weekend. He was very temperamental. If you got into his way, you’d get it. He would cry his lungs out and even our neighbors ten doors away could hear.

However, this was the worst of all: He was playing with the TV remote while my daughter was watching. To prevent further disturbances, my wife took the remote away from him. That was it. That was all needed to trigger for his tantrum.

He cried very loudly until he lost his voice. Suddenly, my wife noticed that his face turned blue, followed by his lips. In no time, our son lost his consciousness and slept on my wife’s shoulder.

I was there and I observed the whole episode. We were panic like hell and it was so fast that we couldn’t do anything, if we ever knew what to do. I was relieved as I realized that his face was back to normal (pinkish) after 2-3 seconds duration. Then he went to sleep.

Was it frightening to uneducated parents like us? You bet.

Since this was the first time my wife and I saw this, we started an intellectual discussion about what had just happened. But that led to nowhere as we were clueless about this pass out incident. We were speculating could it be our son was too tired as he didn’t sleep well the night before, or could it be something else that we didn’t know.

To leave no stone unturned, my wife quickly called our pediatrician cousin to relate the matter to him.

After describing the incident, our cousin concluded that the incident was called “breath holding attack.” Fit or convulsion was excluded even though some of the descriptions fit into a fit.

Side note: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia’s definition of a breath holding spell is "A breath holding spell is an involuntary holding of the breath accompanied by loss of consciousness in response to a confrontational situation."

Some advised us to seek the help of a pediatrician for a face-to-face examination. Then so we did. We brought our son to a nearby clinic. Again, after listening to our description, the pediatrician said very confidently that the case is again classified as breath-holding attack.

The reconfirmation made us 50 bucks poorer. But at least my wife and I can sleep more soundly now as the pediatrician reassured us that there’s no cause for alarm and if it happens again, what we can do is to calm the child. Or prevent our son from getting upset or angry.

Oh boy, if you don’t know what breath-holding spell is and it happens to your child, I can bet that it will scare the hell out of you. When you child’s face turns blue, so does yours. That was what happened to us.

Thank god breath holding will disappear when a child enters age five. And it’s advisable to see a doctor if the spell happens for the first time to make sure it’s not convulsions. If it’s indeed a breath holding spell, check for anemia or iron deficiency.

Now that you know what the heck breath holding spells are, at least you know there’s no danger in the attack. So there should be no reason to panic anyway.

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I just don’t understand this. I am surprised to find out why a woman is willing to stay with her husband who is abusive and controlling, for over 38 years?

Everybody asked her to leave her husband including a Christian counselor. She just can’t make up her mind what to do next: to stay or divorce.

The woman posted a question to Michael Smaller after reading one of his articles.

Question: what do you do if you were in her shoes?

To get some good advice, you may want to listen to this marriage advice podcast by Michael himself.
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Barbara Curtis is calling for photos of mothers with Down Syndrome children for a web album in conjunction with Mother’s Day this year. Click here for more details.
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What do you do about your child's fever?

For the last three days, my daughter's body temperature's high, hovering around 38-38.3 degrees Celsius (That’s why having a digital thermometer at home is quite handy). My wife and I discovered her forehead was warmer than usual when we woke up Tuesday morning. That day was the first day she skipped kindergarten.

After a few attempts of sponging and medications, we still couldn't keep the temperature down. To make things worse, she has running nose, cough, dry throat and low appetite.

My wife and I, of course, got worried. As the last resort, I brought her to a pediatrician this morning.

Here are a few tips from the pediatrician on child's fever.

When the body and forehead are warm but hands and feet are cold, it shows that the body temperature is rising.

One of our main concerns is brain damage caused by fever (we heard so much about this). However, the pediatrician assured me that the damage only happens if you have fit. Under normal situations, the chances of causing brain damage are slim.

What we can do at home to keep the fever under control (but only a temporary measure though) is to sponge the body with a warm towel (preferably body temperature). We should NOT use cold water for the towel. The purpose is to extract heat from the body.

Drink plenty of water.

No swimming.

Those are the main points that I can remember.

Two nights in a row without good sleep is no joke. But it’s our duty as parents to make sure our child is safe and sound. Also this is the time when your child needs you the most. I just hope and pray that she will recover soon and resume school to meet her friends that she already misses.
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