Ataxia in toddlers (unsteady walking) epilepsy?

[Jellyfishgal89]

Hello!
This is my first post - one very worried mummy here, might be long but I'm hoping for ANY input.

6 weeks ago my 21month old son had 4 seizures in over an hour long period. He just stared into space completely unresponsive, went grey and total floppy. He spent the night in hospital to be monitored, wasn't a ferbile convulsion- he had no temp and was well. He has had an ECG - Normal and an EEG - normal. So that rules out epilepsy as far as consultant is concerned. While in hospital it was noted he had a perforated ear drum and he was followed up by ENT 10 days ago (Dr practically shooed me out the door)

My mother instincts knew something wasn't right so the next day I took him to GP who said his drum is healing. 48 hours later he's still pulling at his ear with a new symptom - he has ataxia. The poor mite couldn't walk and was falling all over the place, bumping into things, failing over - went to GP. Called the peads they said to bring him in.

He had a huge infection behind his healed ear drum!! Pead said "he's lucky it hasn't turned septic" *I bite my tongue.
Same day he's taken down for surgery to have a grommet in his right ear. We had a 4 night stay in hospital, iv Abx and observation.

If he is still staggering around like he's drunk on Thursday the pead wants to do a CT scan of his brain. His walking hasn't improved at all since surgery. He's off balance, trips over nothing and still seems to be in pain, grabbing his ear, vigorously rubbing his eyes.

I just have a feeling there's more to this than just an ear infection, any ideas? Could the seizures be related? Thank you so much for reading. He has no on going temp, not eating much and of course walking like a drunkard apart from that he's happy in himself x

[cestlavielife]

I would insist on an mri scan.
More detail than a ct. scan
See what that says

Then refer to audio vestibular neurologist (ENT specialist with neurology and vestibular knowledge)

How long was eeg for ?

[Jellyfishgal89]

Thanks for your message!

So MRI is better than CT scan? I'm already wondering how he's going to sit still lol.

EEG was for about 45mins, I think that's relatively short??

[BlackSwan]

MRI would take about 45 minutes - but he would need to be asleep to keep still enough - likely a GA. I would also insist on an MRI. There are things which an EEG will show, and things it won't. You need to do both. Not to cause you more concern, but you should be aware of the signs of brain tumours - here is some information from the HeadSmart campaign run by the Brain Tumour Charity: assets.headsmart.org.uk/live/media/filer_public/a8/06/a806a964-9a58-4c25-974e-1ab9adc3b487/headsmart_symptoms_card.pdf

[cestlavielife]

They will sedate him. Tough for you but he won't remember. Sudden seizures and ataxia are serious symptoms and you need to know if mri is clear or not.

If it's clear you look at vestibular ear stuff...even coeliac .