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should epileptic 6yo stay with mom at night?

Wed, 08/15/2007 - 08:23
Hi! My 6 year old had her first nocturnal seizure, (that we know of) a week ago. She's had partial facial seizures for three years, but this was the first seizure where she was completely unresponsive. It lasted 15 minutes, then started again three minutes later. We administered diastat and rushed her to ER. She was non-responsive and vomiting for 40 minutes altogether. Very scary. We were on vacation so she was in the same room as us. I've had her with me since, and have noticed that she is very restless during sleep. She has always hated going to bed and always wants to sleep with me or her sister. I wonder if she has had these before and that's why she hates to sleep alone. I'm terrified to put her in her own room at night. What if she is on her back and starts vomiting during a seizure? Our Nuerologist's PA suggested that we put her back in her own room ASAP and use a baby monitor. Would we hear a seizure over a monitor?

Comments

Re: should epileptic 6yo stay with mom at night?

Submitted by Missyat on Wed, 2007-08-15 - 18:08
My son is 10 years old, and he has a mattress on the floor next to our bed. My son has a very rare syndrome, and epi told us that he has a 30% chance of going status on us. soooooo, because his seizures are lightening quick and can cluster easily and that I sleep very lightly... he will stay right where he is. My son feels better, I feel better and my hubby feels better knowing that in a split second we can help him. The answer to your questions come from your heart, try the monitor, the neuro's PA does not know how your child is you do...consider everything. Missy

Re: should epileptic 6yo stay with mom at night?

Submitted by caris on Thu, 2007-08-16 - 21:34
Thank you so much for taking the time to answer. Especially thank you for empowering me to make this decision from my heart, and not from our PA's fears about "forming bad habits". I read sections of your posts to my daughter and then told her that I was moving her bed into my room. She immediatly started dancing, laughing and crying with relief. Oh. I can not tell you what that did to my mommy heart. It was also a beautiful thing for her to see that others bothered to answer a question about her, and to see that there are other children dealing with epilepsy. Littlebug, she was especially interested in your post. She wanted to know if you lived in our city-obviously thinking playdate! Please tell your daughter that my daughter wishes her the best. Thanks again all. Carissa

Re: Re: should epileptic 6yo stay with mom at night?

Submitted by Debi on Fri, 2007-08-17 - 02:28
My daughter Karabeth was diagnosed with BRE on July 18th, 2007. She has had only one Tonic Clonic/Grand Mal seizure but that was the only one we needed. She quit breathing and I had to clear her airway. She has slept with us ever since and will continue to until I don't know when. I feel more comfortable she is more comfortable and we know we can get to her right away if she has trouble again. She is ten years old. I am about to quit a once a week cleaning job that I do, because it is at night and I don't want my husband or my other children to have to handle an emergency situation without me being there to help and I feel so much anxiety when I have to leave her at bedtime. I keep telling myself that my gut instinct is what I have to go by and right now it is telling me to stay close to my baby. Debi

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