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My neurologist said low blood sugar doesn't trigger seizure

Tue, 03/07/2017 - 20:07
My son had a seizure three days in a row at school, all happened just before lunch. He did not have any seizure next three days at home but had another one at the same time first day when he was back to school. Both the school nurse and us thought independently it may have something to do with breakfast and lunch, so we changed the breakfast at home, and the nurse made sure he had lunch earlier. So far he hasn't had any episode for couple weeks. We brought it up to our neurologist but he thought low blood sugar doesn't trigger seizure. For us we will stick with the changes, but we are wondering if it is just coincidence. Any thoughts?

Comments

I would not rule it out.

Submitted by rysmom8821 on Wed, 2017-03-08 - 07:44
I would not rule it out.

was your son checked for

Submitted by Amy Jo on Wed, 2017-03-08 - 12:46
was your son checked for metabolic issues? usually they test blood for diabetes and other common out of whack situations that can cause seizures but they may not catch less common issues and many docs are not ones who can catch the really out there oddities.so while it's unlikely to be from low blood sugar (as you are likely to see other symptoms that are not minor), there could be something that lowers his seizure threshold by not eating (or something related to taking a break) or there can be unusual problems. it sounds like your gut says this needs some follow up but it may not be something the neurologist is suited for so talk to your son's primary care doc. the downside is that children can be traumatized by excessive testing and docs can view the parent as whacko so be mindful how you approach this yet for the parent who is right to keep pushing, it can make a huge difference. there are some genetic epilepsies that have associated digestive system issues and they don't refer to your gut as the little/second brain for no reason, lots of neural connections between brain and gut they keep learning new things about. I would not assume it's blood sugar, but it is an unexplained oddity.a friend of mine had years of odd, very odd!, symptoms that no one could explain, lots of neurological symptoms even. she was at the point of giving up asking specialists for help since it seemed so impossible. then she got a brief minor illness and they incidentally discovered a huge tumor on one of her kidneys. no more odd symptoms after taking the tumor out. bodies work in odd ways and specialists often don't know how things interact. 

My son's trigger is not

Submitted by mereloaded on Tue, 2017-03-14 - 17:42
My son's trigger is not eating, but that doesn't mean he is not epileptic. Epilepsy is a low threshold for seizures. There are many things that can lower seizure threshold and one of them is not eating, others include sleep deprivation, fevers, alcohol use, exhaustion etc.etc. Most people can fast, not sleep, get drunk etc.etc and not have a seizures. Epileptics can  have seizures when not eating, being tired, having an alcoholic drink etc.etc.People with epilepsy are sensitive to certain things, including low blood sugar. My don's two seizures his blood work came back with low blood sugar both times, so his trigger cause is metabolic, which is one of epilepsy causes. My son is neither diabetic or hypoglycemic, but either end can send him into a seizure. It is his trigger along with sleep deprivation. 

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