text: my baby stops breathing? i have a baby girl, sometimes she stops breathing when she gets scared or hit herself, yesterday it took her 10 minutes to react she couldnt have taken 10 minutes to start breathing, she would not survive. the following quote is from the link below about premature babies but it is still relevant. take your baby to a doctor and have her checked out.  babies normally breathe 20 to 60 times a minute. it is normal for babies to stop breathing for up to 10 to 12 seconds. these breathing pauses are considered to be normal if the baby begins breathing again by himself and there is no change in the baby's skin color and no drop in heart rate. babies may also have a breathing pattern in which they have a breathing pause and then breathe several rapid shallow breaths. this is called periodic breathing and is also considered to be normal. pauses between breaths that are longer than 15 seconds or pauses that occur with a change in the baby's skin color and a drop in heart rate are not normal.