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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: Infantile Spasms

Submitted by Trudy Swain on Mon, 2006-03-06 - 12:22
My daughter was diagnosed with the west syndrome when she was three months old. She had so many seizures during the day that we thought she was blind. The brain activity was so strong she couldn't concentrate at all. We were told that she would have learning difficulties and other problems. They started her on sabril/vigabatrin and we never saw another seizure until she was five. She developed normally, started seeing me and stopped all seizure activity. She took it for six months. She now attends a main stream school, is learning normally and couldnt be happier. OK the seizures did come back last year but they are partial. She is on meds and seizure free. Hope this helps Trudy UK

Re: Infantile Spasms

Submitted by Wilsphl2 on Wed, 2011-07-13 - 11:53
Hi Trudy I have just joined this group as a Grandma of a precious little girl who was diagnosed 6/7 weeks ago at the age of 8 months with IS. She has been predisolone? ....steroid treatment for 5 weeks now and hasn't had a seizure for nearly 3 weeks. She seems to not be suffering developing normally....if anything she is ahead for her age.....and we are hoping that the treatment has worked?! I don't even know if you will see this post as I realise your post was written a very long time ago.....but it gave me hope where so many have frightened and dismayed me :( What I would like to hear is how is your daughter now and if your success continued? Kind regards Pamela UK

Re: Re: Re: Infantile Spasms

Submitted by klaudiav on Wed, 2006-10-18 - 12:44
Good afternoon Trudy!! thanks for the "good" news!!!! give me some more hope!!! my daughter was also diagnosed with west syndrome, when she was 6 months. its been a month now that she is now taking sabril/vigabatrin (SAME MEDICINE TOMMY'S MOM...i thought it was 2 different things until i read the box carefully last night and saw the 2 names) that one is the powder and she is also on liquid drops. her motorskills started back and she was rolling over back and forth...but now that seemed to stop and also iam not to sure about her vision! (that is one of the side affects with sabril) going to the pediatrician in a few hours! I am keeping the faith! i have some years to go!! Klaudia in St. Martin!

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