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4 month old Diastat
Sat, 11/18/2006 - 11:38Topic: New to Epilepsy.com
My 4 mo old daughter had a simple partial seizure on her right side, jerking of leg arm and face, on October 21st after taking Keflex for an eczema infection on her face it was in clusters lasting about 40 minutes. She had been on the Keflex for about 48 hours. Then again on the 5th of November after her 4 month shots. I did opt out of the Pertussis shot, however she did have the second seizure about 10 hours after the immunizations. This time on the left side with the same jerking of leg arm and face.
I am very confused and hesitant about putting her on any meds, not to mention Phenobarbital or Keppra. My husband and I belive she has been reacting to the Keflex and the immunizations, with the jerking and the twitching. We saw the neurologist on Monday November 13the and was told in so many words that she needs to be on meds for at least 6 months. When we refused he got very rude and fustrated and sent us home with Diastat for her next seizure lasting more than 5 minutes.
Help me with your experience in any of these meds with such a young child. None of these meds are reccommended for children under the age of 2. We were also wondering if we could just keep the Diastat on hand and give it instead of medicating her everyday with these adult meds.
Comments
Re: 4 month old Diastat
Submitted by seizuremom2002 on Sat, 2006-11-25 - 11:35
I noticed you said you were concerned whether to give your child certain meds because of her age. Believe it or not, just because a med SAYS it's not recommended, it's really up to the doctor. All that means is that it's not been tested/or proven to work on under 2. My son has been on all different kinds of anti-seizure meds since birth. They used to give us these handouts everytime we got a new one and they'd make sure we new the side effects. Most of them included the words "may cause death". And boy did the red flag go up with me! Then our neuro explained that even Tylonol may cause death in some. They have to put the worst case on the labels. Given that, Matt was only given until the age of 2 to live and he's a healthy 4 1/2 years now! Even with over 14 of these "dangerous" medications behind him. Good luck. Just go with your gut feelings.
Re: 4 month old Diastat
Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 2006-11-19 - 08:11
Treating seizures in someone who has tendency to clusters or long seizures is very important and right now, medicines are the only way to do this. Here is a link to an article about seizure emergencies that may help - at least give some questions to talk to doctor about. While the article was written for teens, the info on emergencies and plans is the same, if not more important to address for infants.
www.epilepsy.com/pdfs/Except_parent_art3.pdf
People often fear seizure meds. While all meds may have some side effects, many are used with children and the doses are targeted to the age and size of the child being treated. While seizure meds are first tested in adults, many have undergone testing in children as well. Read up on the drugs and look at the package inserts to see what ages they are approved for, then talk to the doctor about experience in this age group and the dosing. May allay fears or at least help people know what to look for and expect.
www.epilepsy.com/epilepsy/medicine_kids.html
Hope this helps!
Epi_help
Dealing with seizures in a baby can be so tough for everyone! It's often hard to sort out one cause or what works or doesn't. For example, infections can be triggers to seizures - it's not unusual for people who have infections elsewhere in there body to have a worsening or breakthrough of seizures. And, while some people may be sensitive to certain antibiotics, if changing the antibiotic doesn't help, maybe the infection or illess was part of the trigger. Talking to the doctor about all possible triggers and having a plan to deal with these is important.
Treating seizures in someone who has tendency to clusters or long seizures is very important and right now, medicines are the only way to do this. Here is a link to an article about seizure emergencies that may help - at least give some questions to talk to doctor about. While the article was written for teens, the info on emergencies and plans is the same, if not more important to address for infants.
www.epilepsy.com/pdfs/Except_parent_art3.pdf
People often fear seizure meds. While all meds may have some side effects, many are used with children and the doses are targeted to the age and size of the child being treated. While seizure meds are first tested in adults, many have undergone testing in children as well. Read up on the drugs and look at the package inserts to see what ages they are approved for, then talk to the doctor about experience in this age group and the dosing. May allay fears or at least help people know what to look for and expect.
www.epilepsy.com/epilepsy/medicine_kids.html
Hope this helps!
Epi_help