parents of preemies or special needs babies, How many times did your child have apnea or stop breathing....?

Question

This is for parents who have been there only, please no stupid responses. How may times a day did your child have apnea or stop breathing, or just turn blue? My daughter has been having some gagging to the point of turning blue and dropping her o2 sats and heart rate. The docs know and she is going tomarrow, so no go to the doc answers please. She has a feeding tube (MicKey Button). I was just wondering if anyone else has expierenced this.

Answer 1

My daughter had an NG tube (from 2 weeks old until 4 months old) when she somewhat had apnea. But it would only happen when her GI doctors kept changing her formula due to her reflux. She would throw up & stop breathing almost after every time we fed her. Now she has a Bard Button G tube and a fundo (sp?) (but she still refluxes and is now retching about every other week nonstop) and she is on Neocate Infant and so far she hasn't had any apnea. But the retching is heartbreaking. Her GI doc says that's it's normal, but can't figure out why it's in a cycle. Like, she was fine last week but today she started to show signs that it's starting again.

Note: My daughter was born with a heart defect and had her repair surgery when she was 3 days old. So, we have had other medical problems with her.

Answer 2

She has a MicKey? Did she have a fundal plycation when it was placed? That is where the surgeon wrap the esopagus around the trachea preventing reflux. If not the it might be GER, Gastric Esopagus Reflux. When formula spills out of the stomache and back into the esopagus is causes a vagal response. This will make the heart rate drop, breathing to pause and there fore Sao2 to decrease. It is can also be painful and this will cause apnea, or her to stop breathing thus causing the heart rate to decrease and the Sao2 to drop. What formula are you giving, how much and how fast? She may not tolerate the volume of the formula, causing her stomache to over flow. To counter act this, she may need a higher calorie formula, Premie formula that is 24 calories an ounce or more, and less volume. She may also need smaller feedings more frequent. Other things that can be done are thickening the formula, it is heavier and more difficult to reflux. In our NICU we use Thick-it. Just a sprinkle in a feeding, adjust as needed to the right thickness. Or some units use rice cereal. She can also be placed on medication to reduce the reflux, Reglan or Prilosec. Also, is she sucking on a pacifier when this happens? This can increase the reflux, and increase vagal response. Infants that are very premature and have been on ventilators and oral feeding tubes sometimes have an aversion to any thing oral. They have never has a positive oral experience and therefore will fight anything offered orally.
Do the spells last for 2-3 or 10 seconds. Do they resolve on their own or do you need to stimulate her? Are they getting more frequent, lasting longer or is her heart rate and Sa02 dropping more and more? These can all be signs of sepsis, infection. If she is more quite, pale, cool to touch, call the doctor now or take her to ER. Sepsis can be deadly very quickly in a premature infant. Call the unit she was in, if possible. Those nurses took care of her maybe for months, they can give you advice as well. And they are open 24 hours and day 7 days a week. They will help you how ever they can. I know I am one of those nurses.

Answer 3

I had a preemie- 9 weeks early. She had mostly brady's in the hospital (drop in heart rate) but did also have some apnea with the brady. For awhile she had at least one a day. The week before she came home she had two "spells" where she turned blue. My daughter had the same thing as your daughter-- gagging, turning blue and dropping her O2 sats and heart rate. It was very scary. She still continues to choke from time to time on her formula.

Answer 4

My son, 31 wkr, now 5 mths, had apnea and brachy so often in the NICU, I could hardly tell you. He's never turned blue or officially stopped breathing, but I know that it's fairly common. He only needed the vent for 1 day and no mickey or monitors sent home with us. Hope everythings ok.

Answer 5

I've known several people with sleep apnea 32 times an hour isn't that bad but he really needs a machine handy just to be on the safe side by the way it can get ALLOT worse so he should be just fine i think

Answer 6

I was a preemie by a month and a half. My mom and i just discussed the same thing. I was on a feeding tube also. I stopped breathing off and on for months so she kept me in bed with her after i got out of the hospital just in case. I was on a feeding tube also. it finally stopped as i got older and developed.

Answer 7

i was a preemie baby (2 months early) and as far as i know i only turned blue once and that was in the hospital and i never had apnea i was lucky!

Answer 8

my son weighed 4lbs 0.3oz when he was born and he was on a breathing moniter and when he was in the hospital his breathing stop and the moniter made a loud beeping sound and his heart rate dropped and when we brought him home his heart rate dropped so low that we had to hit the bottm of his foot to bring it back up.. we did bring the moniter home and it was a good thing that we did.. but my son now is 6 yrs old and he is doing great.. but when you go to the doctor tomorrow they will find out the problem and your child will be fine.. just keep a eye on him/her and if you think the child needs to go to the ER than take her, dont mess around with waiting .. hope this helps you

Answer 9

1

Answer 10

my daughter did that but then the doctor did an operation on her and that was all she did it about 20 times how scared was i my gosh thanks to god for saving her