Babies and Breathing troubles

Sneezing

Babies sneeze easily. Sneezing dooesn't usually mean a cold unless the nose begins to run, too. It is most often caused by dust and dried mucus that has collected in a ball in the front of the nose and tickels. If the breathing is obstructed, you can first moisten then remove the mucus with the corner of the washcloth.

Faint breathing

New parents usually worry a little about a new baby's breathing because it is often irregular and at times to shallow that they can't hear it or see it. They may worry, too, the first time they hear their baby snoring faintly while asleep. All these conditions are normal.

Chronic noisy breathing 

Chronic noisy breathing occurs in a certain number of young babies. In one form the babies make a snoring noise in the back of the nose. It's just like a grown-up snoring, except that babies do it while they are awake. It seems to be caused by the fact that they haven't yet learned to control their soft palates.
The  commoner type of chronic noisy breathing is caused in the larynx (voice box). The epiglottis, a fleshy structure just above the vocal cords, is so soft in some babies that is sucked down and made to vibrate. This causes a loud rattling, snoring noise during breathing in, which doctors call stridor. It sounds as if the babies were choking, but they can breathe that way indefinitely. Stridor goes away when the baby grows older. Noisy breathing that comes on acutely, particularly in an older infant or child, has an entirely different significance from the chronic variety. It may be due to croup, asthma or other infection, and requires prompt medical attention.

Breath-holding spells

Some babies get so furiously angry when they cry, and hold their breath so long, that they turn blue. When this first happens, it scares the wits out of the parents. It seldom means anything except that the baby has that kind of temperament. 



Text source: Dr. Spock's Baby and Child Care -Beanjamin Spock and Michael Rothenberg