Advice on child giggling vs seizure

[adviceonchildplease]

Hello, my 2.5 year old has just started (within the last week or two) having laughing sessions. Perhaps 10-20 seconds long.

it sounds like his usual laugh, and he appears aware of me, is looking at me/ family member and can stop and start in response to me asking “oh is that funny? Are you giggling? “ etc.
he is his normal self after, and there are no other symptoms of concern.

sometimes it may have been due to something funny on his screen but then other times he was just lying down trying to fall asleep, and another time in his car seat. Once or twice it’s happened whilst he is sleeping, just one tiny giggle and then back to sleep. I think there has been 4/5 times in the last 10 days. I should also mention we have been ill this week with a sickness bug, so it may be related to that?

what I was wanting to know is- does this sound like he’s just having a wee giggle, or does it sound more concerning?

for those who know someone with these laughing seizures, is there a way I could double check if it’s a seizure or not? Some test I could do whilst he is laughing to check one way or the other?

I have decided that if it happens one more time I’m making a doctors appointment to get it checked, as I want to record it to show the doctor. Otherwise I would go to the doctors already, but I don’t have the recording yet. It’s only occurred to me today that the laughing fits may be unusual.

thank you for any advice, much appreciated.

There is a very rare seizure type called "gelastic seizures" - these involved laughter though it's generally perceived as incongruous or sinister. Would be usually associated with other types of seizures or other abnormalities.

If there's genuine concern then an EEG (electrical trace of the brain) would distinguish it. Whether this would be reasonable depends on what else is going on.

Videos are helpful and most places allow referring GPs to send them directly to paediatricians / epilepsy specialist team.

Thank you for your reply. Yes if it happens again, ill
hopefully be quick enough to grab a video. Thank you, so the EEG would likely be the next step for the doctors to advise? Is that like an electrode on his head and then he lies still for a while?

If the GP is worried / unsure they will likely refer to a paediatric department. Exactly what happens then is a bit variable in terms of "you get seen by an epilepsy specialist" / "you get seen by a generalist paediatrician" / "epilepsy specialists review your video before the consultation". If actually someone with relevant expertise thinks "this is likely behaviour laughter not seizure-laughter, we can watch and wait and not do an EEG" it's not a given that one will happen, so it's not the "next step" in that respect.

Start videoing your child all the time to catch the suspected seizures. My DC has a rare for of epilepsy and the GPs brushed us off for over a year even with two letters from different nursery’s and ten videos from us. They said it was a tic. It wasn’t.

Try to compare it to suspected seizure type online. Even with all the documentation, it can take a long time to get an EEG, years unfortunately. Wishing you all the luck.