Brief Resolved Unexplained Event in Babies: Everything Parents Need To Know About BRUE

Experts warn parents about a "silent yet scary condition" that can happen to their babies.

Mom of three, Sarah Bendel, caught a terrifying moment on video when her youngest child suddenly stopped breathing and became unresponsive for a few minutes.

The video, which has since gone viral with 9.2 million views as of writing, showed the mother grabbing her baby from the crib. After a few seconds, a panicked Bendel started yelling for help and instructing to call 911 while her other kids cried and asked about what was happening.

After a few minutes, Bendel can be heard talking to her husband and confirming if she is already breathing, to which her husband replies, "I think so."

"BRUE AWARENESS. This was so traumatic. I can't even begin to describe the panic that set in. Jojo is 6 weeks old and suffered with this today. Has this happened to anyone else? She had last eaten 3 hours prior. I was waking her to feed her, and this happened," Bendel captioned the video.

Unpredictable nor unpreventable

BRUE is an acronym for "Brief Resolved Unexplained Event."

According to Fox News, BRUE is an "incident of unknown cause in which a baby stops breathing - and can be unresponsive" for a brief period of time, usually less than a minute.

NYU Langone pediatrician and expert Dr. Sara Siddiqui informed the news outlet that a BRUE usually involves a decrease of change in the infant's breathing, weakened muscles or muscle tightening, and a bluish discoloration of the lips or mouth.

When asked about the cause, the doctor stated that it is unidentified. However, according to Dr. Jane Tavyev Asher, California-based Cedars-Sinai Guerin Children's Pediatric Neurology director, seizure, infection, reflux, or cardiac complications can be possible causes of BRUE.

"It's just something that usually catches parents by surprise. It's not something that you can predict or prevent - it's just something to be aware of," declared Asher.

Siddiqui further shared that BRUE has no warning signs. Yet, premature infants or those who experience gastroesophageal reflux and have spent time in the NICU are at a higher risk of breathing difficulty.

'Nothing to be overly concerned about'

"She looked stiff to me. I picked her up, she was clearly stiff and that started the panic and the bellowing for my husband who was downstairs. It felt like a lifetime of her not breathing but it was about 45 seconds," Bendel shared in a separate video.

The family later discovered that their baby's BRUE episode was due to a silent reflux, Kidspot reported.

Siddiqui stated that a BRUE incident would mostly occur only once. If it happens again, there is an underlying diagnosis that requires an investigation, such as a potential existing ailment, Asher added.

The doctors, however, encouraged parents to go to their pediatrician immediately if a BRUE occurs, especially if the baby is 60 days old or less, premature, or has other medical concerns, or if the BRUE episode lasted longer than a minute.

"Make sure the child is in a position where if there are any secretions - like reflux or vomiting or anything like that - that they're not going to aspirate or choke on those secretions. You want to lay them on their side when it's happening, or have them angled where anything that's in their mouth would be falling down," Asher advised parents.

Ultimately, she also expressed that BRUE is "nothing to be overly concerned about." Parents just really need to be aware and should know how to properly evaluate the situation.