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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: Re: Re: Infantile Spasms

Submitted by jennamay on Mon, 2006-01-30 - 13:56
To add to Tommysmom's comments regarding West Syndrome I think you may want to explore the following pages on epilepsy.com: http://www.epilepsy.com/epilepsy/epilepsy_infantilespasms.html http://www.epilepsy.com/info/family_parents_newborn.html http://www.epilepsy.com/info/family_infants_diagnosis.html http://www.epilepsy.com/info/family_infants_treatment.html I hope this information is helpful. Best Wishes, Epilepsy.com Editor

Re: Re: Re: Re: Infantile Spasms

Submitted by bird on Mon, 2007-10-22 - 09:35
My nephew has recently been diagonised with Infantile Spasms. They told my sister that he has servere brain abnormality. Does anyone know of somewhere my sister can take my nephew for a better diagonisis? It has been a month and she is a wreck. Please if anyone has anything to offer please let me know.

Re: Re: Re: Infantile Spasms

Submitted by Gavinsmom on Wed, 2006-05-10 - 16:40
My son Gavin was dx with Infantial Spasms at 4 months of age. He had the same "jack knife" like action seizures. All of his tests such as CT, labs, spinal tab came back normal it wasn't until he had an EEG done that we finally knew what he had. Gavin has been on several meds. to try and control his seizures. We had luck with ACTH in the beging he was seizure free for 3 and half weeks but, then they came back stronger and lasted mins. Gavin has since been put on Zonisamide which has turned out to be "The one" for him. He has been seizure free for 3 months now and seems to be getting back on track with his development. He is going to be turning 1 the end of this month, but is only at a 5month level in development. The only advice that I have for parents going through this is that you will get through this and there is tons of anti-seizure meds out there you just have to find the one that works for your child. That sometimes is a long road but, worth it. Gavin does have some brain damage from all the seizures and eats through a NG tube but, what the future holds for him we don't know but he is the happiest baby to be around.

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