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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 KarMac on Sun, 2006-03-19 - 11:56
Have you taken him to a GI? My son was on Zantac and showed no improvement. HE's now on reglan and Prevacid, but it scared the bjezuz out of us. We spent 2 days in a video EEG monitoring unit to see if my son was having spasms. Nothing showed up on the reading. Our neuro. was baffled. When I described the symptoms to the gasteroenterologist, she said it sounded like typical reflux reactions. That explains why my son always seems relieved after he has one of these little episodes. It might pay to see a specialist.

If a child has IS the EEG

Submitted by music2miears on Wed, 2006-03-22 - 08:05
If a child has IS the EEG shows a pattern of Hysarrythmia. Did Tommy's EEG come back with that reading? If not, he does not have IS. My daughter, whom is now 18 yrs. old, had IS starting when she was 8 months old. Up until then she developed normally...she was saying "Mommy" and "Daddy" and standing and walking. She regressed as do most children who suffer from IS. I'm not sure your son has IS. I would get a second opinion. Also, Sabril is a new mediation and has seen some benefit in stopping IS. IS only lasts for a short time in infancy. Therefore, he would only need to use it a short time. My daughter took ACTH injections. They immediately stopped the seizures, but she was left with Developmental Delays and Disabilities.

Re: If a child has IS the EEG

Submitted by mmiddaug on Mon, 2006-04-03 - 14:33
I just found out 2 days ago that my son, Anthony, has IS. He was 3 months premature and had brain bleeds on both sides when he was born. He will be a year old in 2 weeks. I was just wondering if anyones child has been on Keppra for IS and what happened? Everything else i have read about Keppra was for other seziures, not IS. I'm really upset about all of this, any advice??? Thanks, Megan

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