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Symptoms: feeling of breathing difficulty, when the child is actually getting many fall breaths of air; tingling or numbness in hands and feet; muscle spasms; fainting.

Home care:

Remain calm and reassure the child.

Have the child breathe into a paper bag placed loosely over the mouth and nose.

Precaution

Rapid, deep breathing that causes fainting has become a party stunt in some circles. Discourage

this kind of game.

Hyperventilation is a breathing difficulty in which too-rapid or too-deep breathing causes a marked loss of carbon dioxide from the blood. There are many physical illnesses that cause difficulty in breathing, including asthma, diphtheria, colds, croup, hay fever, and pneumonia. Hyperventilation, however, is not a physical illness at all. It causes the sensation of difficult breathing or air hunger, but there is no physical condition preventing the person from taking in or letting out air.

Hyperventilation is common in older children, teenagers, and young adults. The person complains, often bitterly or fearfully, of being unable to “get enough air,” while at the same time taking deep breaths in and out with no visible difficulty. The rate of breathing may be rapid or normal. There is no abnormal sound to the breathing as in croup, bronchitis, or asthma. Temperature and color are both normal, and there is no cough. In fact, the deep breathing can be recognized as sighing, one sigh right after another, and lasting for minutes or hours. The cause is essentially the same as that of sighing: nervous tension, fear, anxiety, or depression.

If hyperventilation continues long enough, the person will experience tingling and numbness in the hands and feet, followed by spasms of the muscles that control the hands, fingers, ankles, and toes. This is caused by breathing out too much carbon dioxide. If hyperventilation continues long enough, fainting can occur. Unconsciousness temporarily cures the condition, and the person recovers.

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