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Toddler EEG ?s

macaroni1979macaroni1979 member
in Special Needs
Hi, DS has an EEG next Thursday and I was wondering if anyone has been through this with their LO and can tell me what to expect and about their experience. He is 19mo old. I just read our paperwork and it says he needs to be sleep deprived. How much sleep did you allow your LO the night before? Also, will I most likely need to hold him down? How long does it last? Anything you can tell me would be appreciated. Thank you!
Josie Cailin 7/25/08 Asher Mason 7/19/10
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Re: Toddler EEG ?s

  • kar5162kar5162 member
    They should give you specific info. When DS did his, they had guidelines by age (younger kids needed to be less deprived than older kids) and it was something along the lines of wake them up 1 hr early, 2 hours early, no nap, etc. Ours took 2 hours I think? He was around 18 months at the time. I held him while they put the leads on and then rocked him to sleep when they wanted him to go down - trickier with the wires, but ours was doable. DS cooperated well, but I could see it being really painful too - each kid/day will be different in that regard.
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  • MummyGruetzieMummyGruetzie member

    We've had two sets of EEGs. A one-hour while admitted for other issues that ended up being redone the next day or so and a video-EEG that lasted several days. With the one hour, she wasn't specifically "sleep deprived" (though I'm pretty sure I was at the time!), they stuck the leads on her head. It seemed like a ton of leads--maybe 20 or 30. Just putting on the leads took about 20 or 30 minutes. Then they wrapped gauze around her head to secure them. The guy got really upset if she moved at all as it was apparently interrupting the brain signal. DD needs to be in constant movement and holding her down from rocking wasn't fun. The second time the person didn't mind her rocking and we just tried to limit anymore body shifting than necessary. For the 24 + hour video EEG, if that's what you're doing, LO will be in a bed with a video camera on it. We were allowed to pick DD up as needed and also moved her to a playmat on the floor at one point. Though, I've heard that some places are stricter about the child staying in the bed for the entire test. They'll have you press a button when you see what you think of as "activity" so they can compare it with what actually shows up. They didn't want us to leave the hospital until we'd seen all of the typical "abnormal" behaviors to make sure that they were able to confirm or deny them as seizure activity. But otherwise there were still the same group of leads and everything else was pretty much the same.

    The glue was horrible to get out of DD's hair. I'd definitely bring either a cotton hat to put on top to keep the glue from getting everywhere on your way home or a comb and some shampoo/detangler  to get it out in the office after the test. After the video EEG we had a nurse give us vaseline... which seemed to help right where the bulk of the glue was, but made a huge mess otherwise. 

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  • kellyhilbernkellyhilbern
    My 2 year old just had his 1st EEG today.  They wanted him to only have 3 hours of sleep, but I let him have around 5 hours.  He slept from 11:30pm-5:30am.  I got him out of bed at 4:30 and had to pester him for about an hour before he was fully awake.  Our EEG was at 12:30pm (his normal nap time-highly suggest doing it close to nap times), so he was awake for 7 hours before. I was able to put him to sleep pretty fast. They put the leads on while he was asleep which took maybe 15 minutes and then 20 minutes more for the test.  Went way better than I expected.
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  • macaroni1979macaroni1979 member

    Thanks ladies. We have an appt at Hopkins Seizure Clinic on Thursday. Paperwork just says for him to be sleep deprived, guess I will call and see what their definition of this is for a 19mo old. Pretty sure I witnessed another seizure this morning :(

    If they let me hold him, I can probably get him to sleep. I'll bring his paci and I guess we'll see what happens. I think they said the test would take 2 hours.

    Thanks ladies! 

    Josie Cailin 7/25/08 Asher Mason 7/19/10
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  • Calypso312Calypso312
    My DD had an EEG at 19 months and here's what we did...She usually goes to bed around 8pm and we made her stay up as long as we could, which endend up being 11pm. Then I got her up at 5am. We didn't feed her breakfast and DH rode in the back of the car with her to keep her awake. When we got to the hosiptal, we hooked her up, gave her a bottle and she was out like a light in a matter of minutes. The whole process took less than an hour. Good luck!
    I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him. 1Samuel 1:27 Image and video hosting by TinyPic Lilypie Third Birthday tickers Lilypie First Birthday tickers Team Peeta Tag Pictures, Images and Photos
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