NON MEDICATION FOR ABSENCE SEIZURES

My 9 year old son was just diagnosed as well. He was put on Ethosuximide and I asked this same question. The main concern his neurologist brought up is the physical activities. If he's riding a bike and has a seizure, he won't stop if he has to. If he's crossing the street and has one, he'll stop in the middle of the road. If he's playing baseball (his favorite sport) and a ball is coming at him he won't put his glove up to catch it (already had this happen...). So by NOT treating it, these scenarios could become more and more frequent. And as he said, the medication will not CURE him. Only his brain growing will cure him. But the medication will help stabilize his brain and make the seizures less frequent.

I totally get that med-free quality of life is best IF your child is not seizing.  Although absence seizures don't seem like they're as big a deal, let me tell you about my friend whose story will make you reconsider the befits of meds.  Her daughter was a healthy kid and only had the occasional partial seizure.  It seemed like no big deal vs the side effects battle with meds so they chose not to medicate.  Not even the doctors argued with this choice.  But that didn't stop her baby at the age of 6 from having a grand mal seizure.  Not just any grand mal, a 10-HOUR GRAND MAL.  Let me repeat, normal girl, partial seizures, no meds, 10-HOUR GRAND MAL.  Fortunately m, they lived in Baltimore next to Johns Hopkins.  Fortunately, she is alive today after coding on the OR table multiple times.  Unfortunately, she will be severely brain damaged the rest of her life.  Unfortunately, the heart and mind of the normal little with no meds will be lost forever in this lifetime.  This horror story is rare but nonetheless true.  There are others out there much worse.  Others that end in parents waking up to find their normal unmediated children with a less than serious case of seizures lying on their bed as a blue-lipped corpse, another senseless victim of SUDEP.  Sure, meds are not fun.  Sure, it can take forever to find one that gives you a manageable quality of life. But consider the alternative.  Medication imho is our only insurance against a hopelessly tragic ending to our children's epilepsy stories.  Praying that your child can find the happy ending she deserves