Seizure in infant
I haven't been on here in a while and honestly don't know where to post this, so I am trying here.
Has anyone had a child with seizures? My dd had one a week and a half ago. She was sick at the time, but no fever. Her illness was due to a bad reaction to her Rotavirus vaccine (per her dr.). She had an EEG (still waiting on results) and sees a Pediatric Neurologist tomorrow.
I guess I'm just looking for any insight on what to expect tomorrow at the Neurologist and where we may go from here. Any questions that you think I should ask would be great too. I am so paranoid it will happen again and check on her all the time at night (the episode I caught was in the middle of the night). I am really trying to stay away from Google right now because I know if I search on it I will freak myself out.
ETA - I did notice the question below but didn't know if the eval for a seizure would be the same.
Re: Seizure in infant
Well, my son will be 3 on Friday, so her treatment may be slightly different but here is what we went through.
I took him to his pedi b/c he had been grabbing his head, waking in the middle of the night, and sometimes getting so upset he'd tense up his body and start growling with zero eye contact and a glazed, far away look. Also, he had staring spells often. He had an EEG that came back abnormal so we were sent to a neurologist. Since we had never seen something that we could say FOR sure was a seizure, the Dr ordered another EEG. He also ordered an MRI. DS is having them both done on Wednesday. He was also started on an antiseizure medication until we could figure out what was truly going on. Thursday he had a full blown seizure. There was no denying it b/c he couldn't talk or walk afterwards. So now we know he's having seizures and we hope the MRI will tell why.
Will the neurologist have the results to the EEG? At her age, I would assume that he would need those results to know what to do as far as treatment goes. Since she was ill when she had the seizure, the Dr may suggest you just watch her and report back if she has another episode. However, if her EEG is abnormal they may start her on an antiseizure med and order further testing. Good luck!
And Elias Parker, Born 3.5 weeks early 12/20/2011
FINALLY!!! After 7 years of infertility!
Thank you so much! We saw the doc this morning and her EEG was "mildly" abnormal. She had some peaks that were higher than they should be. Because she was almost a month early, the doc said the abnormal results could be related to her being so young. It's hard to tell at this point. She wants to do an MRI next week. She will have to be sedated, which is worrying me of course. Her milestones are a bit off, but nothing crazy that can't be attributed to her early arrival. They also want to do a follow up EEG in 3 months to compare to the first one.
I did like you said and wrote everything down that I could remember. I was so freaked out when it happened that everything did seem like a blur when the panic of course set in.
They did not put her on daily meds because like most of you said, she only had one single episode. They did give me a med to keep on hand in case she has another one and it lasts for longer than 3 minutes. Its a gel or liquid that is inserted rectally called Diastat. Anyone have any experience with this med?
Thank you so much for your info. I used to frequent here in my pregnancy but since having her I have minimal time especially since returning to work. I just didn't know where to turn for experience or advice and I really appreciate all of your help on here.
Somehow I missed this when reading your post the first time. Glad to hear this. I got a script for this. Did you notice any adverse reactions to this med?
Also, since your sons are related to viruses, did anything appear on EEG MRI etc. or did they come back normal?
Diastat is what we have given Aaron in the past. I swear it worked almost instantly. When he has a seizure he is unaware of what is going on and does not respond to us. When we give him the Diastat it is almost like he is waking up. He instantly comes out of the seizure (kinda like hey what is going on here). Diastat is actually Valium. It is in a gel formual and given rectally b/c it absorbes quickly that way. It calms the brain down and stops the seizure activity. He does fine with it other than between the seizure and Diastat he gets very tired.
If you find DD having a seizure again gently lay her on her side and free from anything that could hurt her. Laying her on the side can help prevent her from choking during a seizure (not to scare you, it has never happened to us).
When we had our EEG it did show seizure activity in the part of his brain that is not formed properly. That is when they said he needs to be on anti seizure meds. The MRI also showed the spot that was not developed. We knew instantly with the MRI that something was wrong. It took the Drs. a few days to figure out exactly what the spot on his brain was (worst time of my life).
Feel free to contact me with any questions.
Thank you so much! Other than abnormally high peaks the EEG was OK. No seizure seen.
I did lay her on her side and I did a swipe of her mouth with my finger to make sure there was not any vomit in her mouth. I had taken a AED class at work on how to use the defribulator and seizure and shock was part of the first aid session during the class. I felt lucky to know that. You never think you are going to need it, but I did.
I may just take you up on contacting you with questions. It seems like everyday I think of something else.