I’ve actually heard of this problem before.  Some babies and children will get so frustrated that they hold their breath until they pass out.  When I babysat in my youth, one child always threatened to do it.  I said, “Go ahead. You’ll start to breathe again automatically when you’re unconscious.”  But I never actually heard of anyone knowing a baby that did it.  Until Chez Bez,

I put her into her swing so that I could have my hands free to tend to something routine and insignificant. She started to fuss and instead of picking her up immediately, I thought I’d give her a minute to adjust and maybe I could get done whatever it was I was trying to deal with. Instead of the cry, however, there was just that pained silence from my little girl. I saw her struggle and I lifted her from her swing. No sound. She was losing color in her face and I felt that conflict between panic and remembering what the doctor said. Remembering tips and tricks I’d heard before, I blew in her face to startle her back to consciousness. It didn’t work though and she went blue in the face and limp in my arms.

Even if some babies DO do this, it would scare the beejeezus out of me.  Has anyone else experienced this?