To take laughing toddler to A&E?

[Hogi]

I actually don't know if I'm being unreasonable here. I guess i'm just worried.

I can't remember when it started but my toddler would have random burst of uncontrollable laughter a few times a day for seemly no reason. Nothing was funny and it usually gets a bit worse when he's going to sleep or waking up but we just thought it was a quirk of his because he does have a genetic condition and probably is on the spectrum so we just kind of ignored it because laughing can't be bad?

Over the last 24 hours it's been relentless, it's happening more than it ever has and it kept him awake - it was short bursts of laughter for over an hour and he was getting really agitated.

I googled it and it's saying it maybe something called gelastic seizures - it's rare (but so is he's genetic condition) and the history and his symptoms seem to fit what's happening.

He's again having a few attacks this morning and obviously the doctors aren't open but I'm thinking if a 2 year old is potentially having seizures then maybe we should get him checked out?

I don't know really I don't think he can wait a few days with this going on as it's really affecting him (more than it usually does).

Thinking of you and your little one tomorrow.

Good luck 🤞

Good luck for tomorrow, hope you can get some answers x

You're all in my thoughts. If you can't sleep tonight then just rest and distract yourselves with talk radio or something.

Hope all goes well tomorrow Hogi 🤗

Fingers crossed for tomorrow

I hope that tomorrow you get to the bottom of what is affecting your DS OP. It must be worrying for you. I hope he's ok.

I hope you get the answers you need.
Best wishes.

DS is 15 and fell asleep quickly after the medication. The MRI took about an hour and he came round pretty quickly and event free! They may push fluids through an IV to keep blood pressure up, so lots of toilet trips..,, All the nurses were absolutely fantastic with both us and him. Good luck, it will be over before you know it.

Hope all goes OK today @Hogi

I've been thinking of you, hope all is going well today

@Hogi I've been in your shoes with my eldest (now 23).
It's utterly exhausting when you're in and out of the hospital so much and the (are you sure he's not just laughing/holding his breath/pretending etc) comments are draining, having to explain everything over and over again.
Keep your energy up as best you can, they might want to do a genetic screen at some point but in the meantime I hope all goes well and you get some answers soon so he can start some meds if he needs to.
💐

I hope everything went well.

Just an update.

Everything went fine, he really is a superstar haha the nurses said he's a credit to us both. He was really good and managed to sleep on the first lot of medication so that was beneficial.

Few more weeks and hopefully they'll have a better idea about what's happening.

Thank you so much everyone for the kind words

So glad today went so smoothly. That must be a relief. I hope it’s not too long a wait for the results and some answers

Delighted things went so well, and thank you for the update x

Glad it went well for him and he wasn't too stressed about it. Fingers crossed that the results are quick now!

Oh, bless the little fellow @Hogi
Thank you for letting us know how well it all went

I assume you are still waiting @Hogi . How is he doing?

Hi,

Thank you for asking how we are. We are still waiting for the results so hopefully they come soon.

They seem to have calmed down a little bit anyway. Thank goodness. He only really gets them in the car now or when he's falling asleep so I'm hoping it's just something he grows out of but I will update once we know a little bit more

DSs results came through within hours but we were an inpatient so maybe that’s different!

i did wonder (as a non medic but mum of a child with epilepsy) why if they have seen him have seizures and were sure they were seizures they didn’t just diagnose and medicate there and then? Really the EEG and MRI may give more info of any abnormalities, but both can be clear and a person still have epilepsy needing meds. Or vice versa. The acid test is a dr seeing a person have a seizure (or being sure from a video that they have had one) on more than one occasion…. You would have thought what they had seen would have been enough to start him on meds.

sounds like he’s doing ok though! Hope you get results soon!

I don't really understand it myself to be honest, they did see him have a seizure and the monitor reacted accordingly (to suggest a seizure had happened) so I'm not 100% sure why they wanted all the other tests but it is what it is and I'm glad they calmed down.

We're going on holiday in October so I'm a bit worried about that but I'm thinking we should have the results by then anyway and can hopefully know what's going on but he is doing really well.

He started nursery last month and they haven't mentioned any episodes so that's good.

Yes that is good! I saw your other thread re your hols, yes you have some time to go! Even without a diagnosis they usually provide ‘emergency medication’ (midazolam) to carry with you just in case so I’d push for that as a bare minimum even if you just have it in your handbag never to be used!

For us, buccal midazolam works well for tonic clonics but diazepam is better for the gelastics, as rescue meds.

Like others, I’m surprised he’s not already been prescribed medication but that may be due to his age. Not that there’s an age restriction.

You may find nursery don’t mention anything just because people really want to think the child is incredibly happy rather than having a seizure. The number of times we’d be going around Tesco and someone would say “what a happy child”. Not really when it’s been going on for 30 minutes and they have tears streaming.

I hope your little one continues to strive and you get answers soon.

@Anewuser thats interesting. How did you ever be able to differentiate the over charged over excitable child in Tesco from the child having a Gelastic seizure? Could you ‘break’ him out of it (if it was a seizure)? DS has always been prone to ‘over excitedness’, this sort of mad laughing in Tesco too (and does have epilepsy.) when I’ve reported to Drs they have always dismissed that this is a seizure and is just part of autism/ adhd etc. I’ve found it impossible to be able to establish otherwise because I don’t really know what the fundamental difference would be (and sorry to detract from OPs thread.)