Videos: Respiratory Distress & Retractions – Infant/Toddler/Child
If you want to go straight to the YouTube playlist of retraction videos, click here
*** Disclaimer: I’m not a medical professional. But I have at least one family medicine doc friend who shares this post when questions of retractions and respiratory distress come up and it is being used as an educational tool in several settings. ***
I’ve had several people tell me that the videos I’ve shared of Rowan’s breathing when in respiratory distress have given them useful information to help them make informed choices for their own kids. This is especially true when it comes to “retractions.” Retractions are usually talked about when people seek advice about when to call the doctor but are difficult to describe with words.
If you want to know more about signs of respiratory distress, definitely go check out the post I wrote over on Pregnant Chicken – the first part is about RSV specifically, but the rest focuses on respiratory distress in infants.
I couldn’t fit all of my videos in that post, and I’ve gotten some more since then, so I wanted to put them all in one place.
These first videos are from when Rowan was about 8 months old and had RSV. You can see pretty clearly that he’s having trouble, but even so, I ended up sending this video to a friend who is a nurse. He said, “those are textbook retractions.” And then I took him to the doctor and they sent us to the ER. He ended up admitted for about a day.
This one is from a few days after he turned two years old. Thankfully, he did not have to be admitted this time.
The rest are from his most recent hospital admission when he was not quite two-and-a-half. Much like his first admission, we ended up going to the ER twice, and being admitted the second time.
There have been quite a few more doctor visits, urgent care trips, and even one ride to the hospital via ambulance, but I didn’t get videos of every time.
I hope that some of these videos will help you know what to look for when people talk about “retractions (and nasal flaring, grunting, wheezing, squeaking, etc). I’ve even referred back to them myself quite a few times, when I’m trying to decide if I need to call the doctor or not (protip: if I need to look at the video, I am almost always at the point where I need to take him in).
Hopefully, I won’t have any to add to this, but I wouldn’t hold my breath (pun intended).
Update, 12/12/18
And here we are again. We just spent a snowy weekend at the hospital with Rowan, so I have another video to share.
Update, January 2020
We made it all the way through 2019 without any major issues. But the year was bookended with illness with Influenza A making an appearance recently. If we hadn’t had the nebulizer at home we definitely would have ended up in the hospital — it was touch and go there for a while still.
Thank you, your videos is really helpful. I am a medical student in Vietnam. When I was studying about Pediactrics Pneumonia I wonder why the textbook in pediatrics talks so much about subcostal retraction while when we talk about an adult during respiratory distress we care more about intercostal retraction in. So maybe it’s just a different of anatomy between children and aldult. Hope you and your children are healthy and happy.
Hello, my 6 month old daughter has had subcoastal retractions since 2 weeks old. She is now 6 months. 4 inpatient stays, many specialists and daily medications I am still wondering what went wrong with her lungs. Does your son have a diagnosis?
My newborn son has the same, I’m a doctor and am awaiting diagnosis for what I suspect is laryngomalacia. Did your daughter outgrow it?
She never outgrew it. She did not have laryngomalacia. Just to give a few details. She started having severe retractions at about 2 weeks old. Day and night. Poor feeding. Was constantly choking on the breast. losing weight. Falling asleep while eating. We started with a feeding therapist, went to every specialist you can think of. I thought laryngomalacia as well. did not pan out. I searched the internet day and night, that is when I was not in the E.R., at the pediatrician, or at a specialist. I finally got ahold of a pulmonologist. Keep in mind all the doctors thought I was crazy. her retractions were constant, poor feeding, not gaining weight, her complexion was horrible. All while her oxygen was always 100%. We did a 7 day hospital stay with heavy antibiotics, multiple exploratory tests. She finally had a bronchioscopy. There was blood in her lungs. SHe was on albuterol, ipatropium, budesnide, and an acid reflux medication the first year of her life. My daughter was literally dying, and no one believed me except a pulmonoligust and his wife that was a pediatric nurse. They are both in their 70’s probably 80+ years of experience combined. They have a daughter that has severe breathing problems. They never gave up on her. We are extremely blessed to have found them. She is 3 years old now. She is no longer on daily medication. She does 2 nasal sprays and all her prior breathing medication when she is sick. She needs the extra supoort to get through. After a year of waiting we got into the Genetisist. Turns out her final diagnosis was 3 different genetic diseases. Oh I should mention her hands constantly peel and are red. I know, alot of information and misspellings. I am very busy right now. I really did not have time to write this. But, I wanted to answer your question. I remember the hours of tears and research I put in, trying to help my baby. Blessings.