Would you bother looking into this?

[LissyGlitter]

Hmmm, another thread has led to me thinking my 2.5yo DD could be slightly epileptic. She has these kind of mega daydreams where she doesn't respond for a few seconds and if she gets really excited about something she shivers and her eyes roll back and arches her back so you need to catch her. She also sometimes just falls down for no apparent reason. Her development is all normal otherwise.

Thing is, I used to do these things too, but looking on the internet, I seem to tick a lot of the boxes for a mild type of epilepsy as well, or is this just google syndrome? When I am not pregnant, I am on anti-psychotics, but my symptoms actually seem to fit epilepsy more than bipolar or postnatal psychosis, which are the things the doctors seem to be thinking.

So I'm not too concerned about DD having the odd daydream or falling over, but I am if it could lead to the problems I now have, or even worse, what if she is already having problems and is too little to tell me?

DP had full blown grand mal seizures as a teenager as well, but he has said that he thought a lot of fuss was made other the whole thing (I kind of disagree on this, if my child was having fits like that, I would be terrified, and he doesn't remember them, so of course he doesn't think they were a big deal). Anyway, I have talked to him about both me and DD before, and he has a theory that loads of people are epileptic and it doesn't need treating unless it is causing problems.

So, is it worth looking into, or am I getting myself worked up over a child who is just a bit excitable?

[ChopsTheDuck]

I really would get it checked personally. It won't hurt to get an eeg done.

[cory]

I would get it checked out. It may be that your dh is inclined to bury his head in the sand over this because he is secretly frightened by the thought of his own seizures and worried about having passed them onto her. I had to try to get some information out of my Mum the other day about her own childhood health (dcs genetic consultation coming up) and it was like extracting teeth. Apparently she had always been perfectly strong and healthy and never had a problem in her life. Well, that's not the mum I remember from my childhood

But it was the same whole I-can't-see-why-people-have-to-make-a-fuss-idea.

I'd get her checked out just for your peace of mind.

[r3dh3d]

It needs treating imo. If it's epilepsy.

Seizures are something the brain can practise and get better at. Like any neural pathway, using it reinforces it. So the more you have, the more you are likely to have. Which is why they try to medicate even the benign ones; to keep them benign. Tell your DP he probably didn't start out having TCs...

On the other hand - absences (which is what it mostly sounds like) are very benign, and the main effect is that if she has a lot at school she won't be able to concentrate and it will affect her academically. So it's not like there is a screaming hurry to sort this out, you have time to take advice and try to talk DP round. Plus inherited epilepsy tends to be easier to treat and on average less severe than the sort brought on by brain injury etc.

I'd talk to the GP or whoever else you are seeing, tell them the history and ask for referral. Mind you, with the milder epilepsies they tend not to investigate much - just put you on a low dose of a safe med and then if that makes the problem go away - by definition it was Epilepsy, case closed.

[kreecherlivesupstairs]

My dd had absence seizures from the age of about 10 months to 2.5 years when she was weaned off the medication. The doctor explained them to me fantastically. He did say that older children can induce them to give them the sensation of orgasm (he blushed when he recalled that part). Definitely get them checked out. There is no shame in it.