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Special Needs
Fainting/Dizzy Spells
I'm not sure if this is the right board, so please forgive me if I'm off base. I posted on the pre-school thread and no one responded, and then I saw this board and thought maybe someone would have a little insight.
I have an almost 4 year old daughter who has been having episodes of dizziness. This started about a year ago that we know of when she told us she felt like her legs couldn't work and she felt dizzy. Back then the pediatrician attributed it to low blood sugar due to the symptoms. We started giving her juice every morning soon after waking up and havent had problems. Now this last week she has had a few days where she felt momentarily dizzy-once at school when it was very warm and they were outside playing, once in the AM when my DH was walking her in to school, once after nap when the teacher was waking her up and then yesterday was the worst because she actually fainted. Yesterday she wasn't doing anything when it happened-she was just standing next to my DH playing with a calculator and she just collapsed and woke back up within seconds. No shaking or clenching or anything. We took her to the ER and the doctor checked her urine and did an EKG and checked her blood sugar. Everything looked normal and he said he sees this and it is almost always dehydration or low blood sugar. He said it is really hard to check the blood sugar unless you do it right when the fainting occurs. Our daughter had had some apple juice and food after it happened. He sent us home, told us not to worry but that he would refer us to a cardiologist just as a precaution, but didn't expect them to find anything and he would send every patient. I should also mention my daughter did have a work up at a cardiologist about 2 years ago because of a totally unrelated situation and everything was normal (EKG, echocardiogram).
We just went to her regular pediatrician this morning because she said she was dizzy again after eating a little. He said he wasn't concerned and that her EKG was good and she had a good cardiology exam before. He said it was most likely a vesovagal episode which is most often totally benign and can best be managed with lots of fluid, increasing salt intake, etc. We are still being sent to a cardiology follow up and neurologist but he doesn't expect to find anything. I should mention our ped. office is affiliated with Childrens of Philadelphia and the cardiologist we saw was a CHOP doctor.
In between dizzy spells she is acting perfectly fine. I am sooo scared. I know what the er doc and ped. said, but I've been seeing things on google that are terrifying like heart arrhythmias, etc. I feel like something could happen at any second. I have to schedule an appt with the cardiologist which we all know could be weeks until I can get in. I'm so scared of what could happen before then.
I guess I'm just hoping someone can share an experience or something. My husband refuses to even consider that there could be an underlying issue. He won't even listen to me so I'm all alone and feel so sad every time I look at her. I apologize for making this so long.
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Fainting/Dizzy Spells
Not a special needs parent but...
Is there any way this could be related to her blood pressure? One of my friends growing up had issues with sudden drops in blood pressure that would cause her to blackout. It would happen randomly and her blood pressure would return to normal shortly after the episode. It can be serious because once she fainted, hit a wall with her face, and knocked out her two front teeth completely. She manages it now by eating a high sodium diet and monitoring her blood pressure at home to keep track of any irregularities.
This used to happen to me when I was a kid, it was a vasovagal response. By any chance does your daughter have long/er legs? Apparently it's quite common for long-legged kiddos to have it happen, particularly, when they're standing or get up quickly from sitting because of the amount of blood that is funneled down to their limbs. I'd still have the cardio work-up done because I tend to err on the side of caution but if that comes back fine I wouldn't worry too much about it. HTH.