These are frightening to parents when they first experience it.
They may happen at any time from about six months to four years. They tend to develop as a result of frustration or anger in the child or they may follow a period of denial by the parent, or a fall or when the child can’t get his own way with other children.
In an attack the child breathes right out. Then comes a period when he doesn’t breathe at all. During this period his face may become congested and take on the bluish red tinge of cyanosis. Twitching of the muscles may occur and then he usually loses consciousness. There could be loss of control of the bladder at this time.
After loss of consciousness, the child starts to breathe again and quickly returns to normal. At that stage the parents are left in great panic.
It is, of course, not easy to tell parents to walk away from the child when he is going blue in the face and losing consciousness.
Children usually grow out of this habit, but by this time a poor parent-child relationship may have developed with the child able to manipulate his parents.
The parents need counselling so that they can fulfil properly the emotional needs of the child and help him overcome his anxiety.
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