Absent seizures in 21 month old?

[candlebear]

My 21 month old daughter does this thing where she's tired.. she will stare into space and no matter how much I shake her for 10-20 seconds she won't respond and will just stare with her eyes open. It scares me so much and at times I honestly thought she had died. I shake and say her name then she'll come back in the room and start crying. She had a febrile seizure a while ago so I thought maybe I was being over anxious but now I'm wondering if it's absent seizures.
Has anyone had any experience of these with children?

My youngest had a spell of doing this, it started after an illness and it went on for about a month. A friend who is a paediatrician said it's quite common after illness but if it didn't stop then to get it looked into. It's never happened again

Hi OP, yes myself, my dad and my DS have all had absent seizures; I recall a few of mine when I “come to” - DH has seen a couple of them and I’m literally stood staring into space and unresponsive to external stimuli.

DS has had a few of these - I went to the GP and he was referred to a paediatrician who then organised an EEG as she suspected epilepsy.

I would speak with your GP and get their opinion.

Good luck x

I would take her to the gp, video one. Don’t shout and shake her but be gentle say her name squeeze her hand whilst you video ova making sure she’s ok but if she’s still breathing and fine afterwards just get her seen. Reassure afterwards and hopefully the absences aren’t anything to worry about but better to get checked out.

Thank you everyone. They tend to happen when she's tired, either about to go to sleep or just woken up. The first time it happened she was in her car seat and I about came off the road having to slam all on to look at her, for a few seconds which felt like forever I honestly though she had died. It was awful I've never felt so shook up. Of course in panic I shout her name and shake her. Which then causes her to cry when she comes back round. It was only last night when it happened as she was laid on my lap that it click that these might be seizures... it's probably happen maybe 5 times or more in 6 months but it's happened twice this week alone.

That’s awful, OP - I would definitely try and video an episode as that will help with diagnosis. Go to your GP and ask for a paeds referral. Hope you get an answer soon x

Thank you everyone, we saw the gp today and they've put an urgent referral through to paediatrics so I'll keep you updated x

@candlebear how did you get on? Did you get seen?

My son seems to have developed these vacant / quiet episodes and I am wondering what investigations you had done?

@susansaucepan - I would speak with your Gp and see if you can catch him having an episode on video. When my DS was experiencing them, I went to the GP and we were referred to paediatrics and he had an EEG. How old is your son?

@Boatshoes , it's difficult to catch it on video as he appears fine . It's because he is normally so busy and jumping around , babling or screeching that when he is quiet it appears odd. Does that make sense? It's literally only a few seconds so it's not really practical to record but I will ask the GP
And see what they think.