Reflex anoxic seizure

[Onetwothreefourfivenine]

My DD5 had a reflex anoxic seizure yesterday for the first time. Does anyone have any experience of these? Is it likely to be a one off? I understand they’re not life threatening but I’m concerned about it happening again.

That must have been really scary for you.

I don't have direct experience of this in my own DS; however, I taught a child who had a medical alert as she suffered from RAS. Hers were brought on by shock - the example given to us was when she bumped into another child on a trampoline and fell down heavily. Over the years, things had really improved for her and by the time I taught her in KS2 she had only had one in the preceding year. Her mum was more concerned with making staff understand that this was a medical issue, not behavioural (i.e. clarifying that the child wasn't breath-holding out of anger; it was something she had no control over!). There was no invasive treatment needed either - I seem to remember something about blowing gently in her face to bring her back round, but this is a few years ago now...

So, overall, while it is definitely a horribly scary thing to happen (my LO is under investigation for seizures at the moment), it did not affect this child's life to any huge extent beyond school needing an awareness of what might happen, and in her case she did seem to grow out of it happening regularly.

Someone with more direct experience can hopefully help more, but I didn't want you to go unanswered! Good luck.

My eldest son has this. Started around aged 2 and he had about 3 episodes in space of a few months, always after a shock or sudden injury/fall. As he got older they're less frequent, and by the time he started school he was only having 1-2 per year, often without the seizure part.

He's 8 now and not had one for almost a year. He's got better at recognising the triggers and the feeling it's going to happen so he can do things to help prevent. I think he'll always be prone to fainting but it happens rarely now.

And yes, like previous poster said, I just made his school teacher aware that he was prone to this. He had one after nasal flu spray vaccination one year and another after a very minor paper cut! 🙈