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5 Month old having Seizures after immunizations

Fri, 04/15/2005 - 05:26
When I had my son's immunizations at his 4 month check-up he had a adverse reaction and had a seizure 20 hours after that lasted approximately 10 minutes.  He has had a total of 9 seizure since February 20th approx 1 week apart but a couple of weeks ago he had a really bad week and had 4 in a week.  The all lasted approx 10 - 20 minutes.  They vary from either his right side or left side.  He starts with his arm and it looks like he is just jerking it and can't stop, his face sometime draws a blank and other times he is cognitive sometime it goes to the leg other times it starts in the leg and moves to the arm.  The doctors are talking about putting him on meds but I am quite apprehensive because I feel the drugs are very strong for a baby and I don't want him to be like a zombie.  If anyone can give me some insight on drugs that might be easier for babies or opinions about drugs versus no drugs I am willing to listen.

Comments

Re: 5 Month old having Seizures after immunizations

Submitted by ckane on Fri, 2008-09-19 - 14:30

hi, I'm going through the same thing with my 5 month old daughter.  After her first shots at 2 months old she started flapping her arms when crying.  I found it disturbing but no one thought anything was wrong.  Later, I learned that that is one of the signs of autism.  Luckily her flapping lasted a few weeks, almost a month.  I didnt give her the 4 month vaccination until she was 5 1/2 months.  I think these vaccinations are given to babies too close together.  I told her pediatrician of her flapping arms after the last round of shots and he brushed it off.  I also wanted to space the shots apart instead of giving them to her all at once.  She was supposed to get 3 shots and one oral vaccination.  With the combos in each shot her total vaccinations would be 7.  I think that is waaay too much at once.  But the dr. basically thought i was just being paranoid and convinced me to give all the shots at once.  A few hours after her shots I noticed my daughters right hand jerk and then her left leg.  I mentioned it to people but they think that it's because she had her shots in the leg and her muscles are sore.  I didnt buy that excuse at all.  The jerking has been going on a few times a day and it's been a week since the shots.  Last night I noticed her body jerk while i was holding her.  She spit up a lot and kept grunting.  (She's been grunting for months now and they said she has acid reflux and doesnt empy her stomach in a normal amount of time. )  Because she has been on meds for months now due to acid reflux I told her pediatrician that maybe we should wait til she sees the gastroenterologist before giving her the vaccinations.  He insisted that she get them now.

I feel lost because no one seems to take me seriously and think that Im just an overreactive first time parent.  I'm hoping that this will go away in a few weeks just like the flapping did.  She's been hitting her milestones but I'm sooo worried about the jerking.   Are all of these vaccinations mandatory?  Any help would be  greatly appreciated.  I just know that I'm not crazy.  I really think the jerking has to do with the vaccinations.  I've read that seizures is one of the side effects from the DTaP vaccine.  Has anyone had a baby who jerked after vaccinations but then they went away (without meds)? 

hi, I'm going through the same thing with my 5 month old daughter.  After her first shots at 2 months old she started flapping her arms when crying.  I found it disturbing but no one thought anything was wrong.  Later, I learned that that is one of the signs of autism.  Luckily her flapping lasted a few weeks, almost a month.  I didnt give her the 4 month vaccination until she was 5 1/2 months.  I think these vaccinations are given to babies too close together.  I told her pediatrician of her flapping arms after the last round of shots and he brushed it off.  I also wanted to space the shots apart instead of giving them to her all at once.  She was supposed to get 3 shots and one oral vaccination.  With the combos in each shot her total vaccinations would be 7.  I think that is waaay too much at once.  But the dr. basically thought i was just being paranoid and convinced me to give all the shots at once.  A few hours after her shots I noticed my daughters right hand jerk and then her left leg.  I mentioned it to people but they think that it's because she had her shots in the leg and her muscles are sore.  I didnt buy that excuse at all.  The jerking has been going on a few times a day and it's been a week since the shots.  Last night I noticed her body jerk while i was holding her.  She spit up a lot and kept grunting.  (She's been grunting for months now and they said she has acid reflux and doesnt empy her stomach in a normal amount of time. )  Because she has been on meds for months now due to acid reflux I told her pediatrician that maybe we should wait til she sees the gastroenterologist before giving her the vaccinations.  He insisted that she get them now.

I feel lost because no one seems to take me seriously and think that Im just an overreactive first time parent.  I'm hoping that this will go away in a few weeks just like the flapping did.  She's been hitting her milestones but I'm sooo worried about the jerking.   Are all of these vaccinations mandatory?  Any help would be  greatly appreciated.  I just know that I'm not crazy.  I really think the jerking has to do with the vaccinations.  I've read that seizures is one of the side effects from the DTaP vaccine.  Has anyone had a baby who jerked after vaccinations but then they went away (without meds)? 

Re: 5 Month old having Seizures after immunizations

Submitted by lacme on Tue, 2008-10-07 - 08:55

Hello, your stories sound similiar to mine.  My daughter's seizures began a couple of days after her six month immunizations. Her first seizure was right sided lasted aproximately five minutes. She was admitted that night and she had her second seizure during the night. She was initially diagnosed with febrile seizures, then epilepsy then severe seizure disorder with unknown etiology. She was eventually tested for a mutation in her SCN1A gene and found to be positive for Dravet syndrome formerly known as Severe Myoclonic Epilepsy of Infancy (SMEI).

Currently there are over 150 different mutations of the SCN1A genes documented that result in febrile, sodium channel epilepsies, however most of them do not result in the severe form known as Dravet Syndrome or SMEI.  There is a broad spectrum of severity, including benign Generalized Epilepsy with Febrile Seizures (GEFS), GEFS+, Severe Myoclonic Epilepsy, Borderline (SMEB) and Dravet Syndrome/SMEI.

At one time I felt it was possible that the immunizations somehow contributed to my daughter's epilepsy but after her positive genetic test I now realize that the immunizations are what triggered the fever which resulted in seizure.


 

Hello, your stories sound similiar to mine.  My daughter's seizures began a couple of days after her six month immunizations. Her first seizure was right sided lasted aproximately five minutes. She was admitted that night and she had her second seizure during the night. She was initially diagnosed with febrile seizures, then epilepsy then severe seizure disorder with unknown etiology. She was eventually tested for a mutation in her SCN1A gene and found to be positive for Dravet syndrome formerly known as Severe Myoclonic Epilepsy of Infancy (SMEI).

Currently there are over 150 different mutations of the SCN1A genes documented that result in febrile, sodium channel epilepsies, however most of them do not result in the severe form known as Dravet Syndrome or SMEI.  There is a broad spectrum of severity, including benign Generalized Epilepsy with Febrile Seizures (GEFS), GEFS+, Severe Myoclonic Epilepsy, Borderline (SMEB) and Dravet Syndrome/SMEI.

At one time I felt it was possible that the immunizations somehow contributed to my daughter's epilepsy but after her positive genetic test I now realize that the immunizations are what triggered the fever which resulted in seizure.


 

Re: 5 Month old having Seizures after immunizations

Submitted by lovingmom75 on Wed, 2009-08-12 - 04:26
I gave my 4 year old his shots 2 months ago. Dont know if there can be any relation but he has never had any problems before. Last monday around 8:00 am he was awakened by a seizure. I believe a Grand Mal. It was so scary. I never saw anything like that. I thought I was losing him. They did alot of tests at the hospital and found nothing wrong. I have an appointment to see a neuroligist but its 3 weeks away. He hasnt had another seizure so far but every night, as soon as he goes to sleep, he starts twitching. I cant sleep, Constantly just staring at his every move and afraid to leave the room at all. They did not put him on medication since he's only had one so far. But I believe it was the immunizations. I was mostly searching around to find how long after shots the children were getting seizures and if the twitching was a sign of an oncoming seizure.

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