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Infantile Spasms

Wed, 01/25/2006 - 10:14
My son Tommy was diagnosed with Infantile spasms at 5 months old. We noticed "twitches" that our pediatrician told us may be primal reflexes. After a few more days of seeing my son having "jack knife" seizures where his head would drop and his arms would fly up and his knees being pulled to his chest - I knew something was definitely wrong. My husband video taped the seizures and we brought the tape to our peditrician to view. He immediately suggested we go to see a neurologist and have a EEG done. We did. That same day our son was admitted to the hospital for one week for many tests. He had a spinal tap to rule out any type of in fection. Then he had a CAT Scan, an MRI, many blood tests as well as X-rays done. Everything came back normal. My son shows no sign of mental retardation and seems to be on track developmentally. He was put on ACTH for one month with no change to his spasms. He is also taking Kolonopin. He also has acid reflux and is taking Zantac for that. We are now on Topamax. It has been about 2 weeks and we see little improvement. Tommy has head bobs throughout the day, he has clusters of spasms when he wakes from naps and in the morning, he also jerks when he is drifting off to sleep. He is now being waken at night from the seizures. We feel helpless. We heard that the longer we take to stop the spasms the greater the chance that Tommy could stop developing or take steps backwards in his development. Our neurologist suggested tryung a drug from Canada called Vigabatrin or Sabril. We are from the US and it is not approved here yet. I have done some research on this drug and it seems dangerous for long term use. We just don't know what to do. Any advice anyone has will greatly be appreciated. Thank You!

Comments

Re: Infantile Spasms

Submitted by tummysink72 on Tue, 2010-02-02 - 02:00
I would recomend that you find good Epilepsy specialist insted of going to regular neurologist, he would be able to tell you more about those meds that are not approved in USA.

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Re: Infantile Spasms

Submitted by Marcelinosmom on Tue, 2010-10-19 - 01:19

Hi everyone, my son is also taking Sabril and Zonisamide. My son started having infantile spasms when he was 3 months old and half, we tried ACTH like for two months and didnt work, the only thing that drug did was to make him sleep all the time. He has been taking Sabril for two months and a half now, he is 22 months old now, his seizures are now once a week or every two weeks, his motor skills are delay but no medicine was able to stop or decrease his seizure as Sabril did. Now slowly his motor skills are improving, he started to grab toys, thing that he didnt do before, he seems more alert and stare at us and all his surroundings. his eye doctor checked him and so far there is not vision problems. I also pray that he gets even better and better everyday. His neurologist told us he should outgrow it. I keep myself positive, he does not walk yet but little by little i know he will!

Hi everyone, my son is also taking Sabril and Zonisamide. My son started having infantile spasms when he was 3 months old and half, we tried ACTH like for two months and didnt work, the only thing that drug did was to make him sleep all the time. He has been taking Sabril for two months and a half now, he is 22 months old now, his seizures are now once a week or every two weeks, his motor skills are delay but no medicine was able to stop or decrease his seizure as Sabril did. Now slowly his motor skills are improving, he started to grab toys, thing that he didnt do before, he seems more alert and stare at us and all his surroundings. his eye doctor checked him and so far there is not vision problems. I also pray that he gets even better and better everyday. His neurologist told us he should outgrow it. I keep myself positive, he does not walk yet but little by little i know he will!

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