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2 year old -
Mon, 11/15/2004 - 10:10Hi all, I'm new here and don't have diagnosis yet but am working on it. I'm just wondering if anyone has ever experienced anything similar to what is going on with my 2 year old daughter. Mostly they have noticed it at day care but I have seen her do this a couple of times and even my cousin that has cared for her a couple of weeks ago while I was away saw it happen.
She will just stop what she is doing, or mostly it is when she wakes up from her nap. She stands up and starts to tremble and shake as if "she is freezing". She seems to be alert and if you ask her a question she just keeps saying "No, No". When I saw it happen she seem to be more looking through me than at me. When it was over she kind of whined a little and then walked off and started to play. It lasted 2 or 3 minutes. At day care they said basically the same thing. The say its becoming more and more frequent an we are sceduled for an EEG on Wed. I just wanted to know if anyone has had anything similar. Thanks.
Monique
Comments
RE: RE: 2 year old -
Submitted by nique313 on Sun, 2004-11-14 - 17:42
Thank you so much for your reply. First, I have seen only a couple of these 'spells'. To be honest because she seemed to be shivering and shaking I picked her up and assumed she was cold.
I now of course feel like an idiot. They seem to happen at day care mostly right after her naps. But people have more and more started to tell me, oh I saw her do that....and give me a for instance....I have a lot of what other people have told me to go on at this point. She was born with severe tracheomalacia. Which basically means that her treachea was flat instead of round and we went through a hard first year with her. But just when I thought we were over the worst of it the poor baby has developed something new. I feel bad because some of these stories go back 8 months. How could I have not seen it? I am so on top of what goes on with my kids. This really bothers me.
Anyway, I would always be open with her, I'm not afraid of the diagnosis itself just anything underlying. I just want to help her. I'm afraid for her of course. She is only two so it is hard to say if she has bowel or incontinence problems she is not potty trained. I think she is 'spacey" during the episodes but I'm just in my fact finding period now.
I'm on anticonvulsants for migraines. I would not mess with her meds. I would hope that maybe there is some chance she does not need meds and maybe that is just me being in denial a bit. But I will do what it takes to make her healthy and well. She is just such a normal happy 2 year old and I hate to see anything change her.
Thanks for your information the support from everyone surely helps.
Monique
Thank you so much for your reply. First, I have seen only a couple of these 'spells'. To be honest because she seemed to be shivering and shaking I picked her up and assumed she was cold.
I now of course feel like an idiot. They seem to happen at day care mostly right after her naps. But people have more and more started to tell me, oh I saw her do that....and give me a for instance....I have a lot of what other people have told me to go on at this point. She was born with severe tracheomalacia. Which basically means that her treachea was flat instead of round and we went through a hard first year with her. But just when I thought we were over the worst of it the poor baby has developed something new. I feel bad because some of these stories go back 8 months. How could I have not seen it? I am so on top of what goes on with my kids. This really bothers me.
Anyway, I would always be open with her, I'm not afraid of the diagnosis itself just anything underlying. I just want to help her. I'm afraid for her of course. She is only two so it is hard to say if she has bowel or incontinence problems she is not potty trained. I think she is 'spacey" during the episodes but I'm just in my fact finding period now.
I'm on anticonvulsants for migraines. I would not mess with her meds. I would hope that maybe there is some chance she does not need meds and maybe that is just me being in denial a bit. But I will do what it takes to make her healthy and well. She is just such a normal happy 2 year old and I hate to see anything change her.
Thanks for your information the support from everyone surely helps.
Monique
RE: 2 year old -
Submitted by Clunk1234567 on Sat, 2004-11-13 - 09:20
Firstly, the sure fire way to posativly epilepsy is via the EEG, but it will only tell you if she is having the seizure around the time of the test. No seizure around the time of the test and you'll get a normal healthy reading. When your daughter has one of these episodes, does she develope a change in skin tone, like she has seen a ghost. In nearly all seizures the blood supply is withdrawn away from the skin, making the person look a little pale. In someof cases (and only some), unconciousness is not part of the seizure, kind of like drifting into sleep when given gas in the dentist's chair, but you stop before then and hover about for a while before returning to normal. With these your not with it, but not without it. What you discribed suggests some contact with reality, tell the doctor this. With all absences i've seen, everyone stares through things, i do it i'm told.
Although epilepsy treatment comes with a parcel of tests, scans, and more tests and scans, the biggest help the doctor can get is from you. He/she will need to know as much about the past history since your last visited so they can see if the medications having an effect on the epilepsy. Try to note physical changes as well as the timings, before, during and after the seizure. Does she know it's coming, if so she's getting an aura before the main event. Learn to take a pulse. All these things are forgotten by just about everyone involved with epilepsy, sufferers and carers alike, me included. Try to find if there is a commonality that might be a trigger, like food or TV, some seizures are set off rather than start up on their own. These are the type of things the doctor wants, and needs to know to fight the epilepsy.
As your childs epilepsy is new, i strongly suggest you wear a watch, it will help you find the "normal" lenght of the seizure. Talk to the doctor and decide if you need to press the "panic button" should the seizure go beyond the normal time. Get the day care to time the seizures as well, the earlier you know if it's getting worse the better. One of the side effects of the seizures can be a bout of confusion after the seizure, identify if that's the case with your girl, it will identify if any safety features are needed in the house, like a gate at the top of the stairs. Bouts of confusion is common in some types of seizures, as your daughters is new, you might not know the answer yet.
Epilepsy can affect everything it controls, that means everything in the body, including the muscles, and that is suggested by the shivering during the seizure, if so bowl and bladder releases can happen.
One other thing, whatever medication your girl recieves, you must never alter, or change without the doctors ok. All anti epilepsy medications can only be tinkerd with in a medicaly controlled way, to do it otherwise reduces the threshold for a condition known as Status Elepticus, and that can be a killer, or worse.
In a lot of forums, including this one, i have heard that some people advise not telling the child. Here's food for thought on the subject, if your child doesn't know she has epilepsy, how is she going to tell people that she has it? And if they don't know how can they react accordingly?
In most cases, epilepsy is stopped, children can have a type known as febrile epilepsy, and kids normally grow out of it, also 85%+ of all people with epilepsy have their seizures stopped. Your daughter has one added bonus that gives her an even better chance of beating it, and that is you.
Firstly, the sure fire way to posativly epilepsy is via the EEG, but it will only tell you if she is having the seizure around the time of the test. No seizure around the time of the test and you'll get a normal healthy reading. When your daughter has one of these episodes, does she develope a change in skin tone, like she has seen a ghost. In nearly all seizures the blood supply is withdrawn away from the skin, making the person look a little pale. In someof cases (and only some), unconciousness is not part of the seizure, kind of like drifting into sleep when given gas in the dentist's chair, but you stop before then and hover about for a while before returning to normal. With these your not with it, but not without it. What you discribed suggests some contact with reality, tell the doctor this. With all absences i've seen, everyone stares through things, i do it i'm told.
Although epilepsy treatment comes with a parcel of tests, scans, and more tests and scans, the biggest help the doctor can get is from you. He/she will need to know as much about the past history since your last visited so they can see if the medications having an effect on the epilepsy. Try to note physical changes as well as the timings, before, during and after the seizure. Does she know it's coming, if so she's getting an aura before the main event. Learn to take a pulse. All these things are forgotten by just about everyone involved with epilepsy, sufferers and carers alike, me included. Try to find if there is a commonality that might be a trigger, like food or TV, some seizures are set off rather than start up on their own. These are the type of things the doctor wants, and needs to know to fight the epilepsy.
As your childs epilepsy is new, i strongly suggest you wear a watch, it will help you find the "normal" lenght of the seizure. Talk to the doctor and decide if you need to press the "panic button" should the seizure go beyond the normal time. Get the day care to time the seizures as well, the earlier you know if it's getting worse the better. One of the side effects of the seizures can be a bout of confusion after the seizure, identify if that's the case with your girl, it will identify if any safety features are needed in the house, like a gate at the top of the stairs. Bouts of confusion is common in some types of seizures, as your daughters is new, you might not know the answer yet.
Epilepsy can affect everything it controls, that means everything in the body, including the muscles, and that is suggested by the shivering during the seizure, if so bowl and bladder releases can happen.
One other thing, whatever medication your girl recieves, you must never alter, or change without the doctors ok. All anti epilepsy medications can only be tinkerd with in a medicaly controlled way, to do it otherwise reduces the threshold for a condition known as Status Elepticus, and that can be a killer, or worse.
In a lot of forums, including this one, i have heard that some people advise not telling the child. Here's food for thought on the subject, if your child doesn't know she has epilepsy, how is she going to tell people that she has it? And if they don't know how can they react accordingly?
In most cases, epilepsy is stopped, children can have a type known as febrile epilepsy, and kids normally grow out of it, also 85%+ of all people with epilepsy have their seizures stopped. Your daughter has one added bonus that gives her an even better chance of beating it, and that is you.