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SN children

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Original poster

EEG advice please

9 replies

buzylizy · 27/01/2006 08:52

I have just got a letter saying my dd has an appointment for an EEG They are going to induce sleep with Melatonin(never heard of it) and on the day she has to be up at 5 and at the hospital at 2(poor thing it's half term!!!) She did have an EEG done once when she was awake. But it didn't work as no sooner was one thing put on another came on.
Any advice please as the more I know the better prepared I'll be.

OP posts:

r3dh3d · 27/01/2006 09:05

Hi Buzy;

Melatonin is (I think) the body's natural sleep hormone. It's a tablet. So they are just going to replicate what happens when she falls asleep. It's fairly common to get a clearer result with a sleep-deprived EEG than with a waking one.

DD1 had this - as I recall, it's just like a normal EEG except that they let them lie down on a little bed and fall asleep with the wires on their heads. So if you've had an EEG before - nothing to it.

Though I will say ours failed because being tired put DD in such a foul mood that she got in a real strop with the guy putting the electrodes in, screamed the place down and refused to sleep. But I think (from the chap's shell-shocked expression) that was fairly unusual!

Original poster

buzylizy · 27/01/2006 10:33

can you rememebr do they put the things on when they are asleep?

OP posts:

Bethron · 27/01/2006 16:23

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Original poster

buzylizy · 27/01/2006 17:35

I do hope they put them on when she is asleep. She is 10 and has cp so can you imagine trying to keep her still!!!!

OP posts:

r3dh3d · 27/01/2006 18:40

I think the problem is that they need the trace as they are falling asleep, not just when they are already asleep. A lot of seizure types occur most often when entering or leaving sleep. So I think it's unlikely they'd let you wait till she's dropped off. Sorry!

Original poster

buzylizy · 27/01/2006 18:50

Thanks for the warning. I will have to ring them. If they try to do it when she is awake it is not worth bothering as it won't work..

OP posts:

louise35 · 28/01/2006 23:19

My DD had a sleep EEG done 3 years ago to try to get to the bottom of her seizures, (she was shortly afterwards diagnosed with epilepsy) all we had to do was put her to bed late the night before and get her up really early in the morning. We got her to the hospital really early and they darkened the room and put the electrodes on while she was stil awake and we just kept her quiet until she fell asleep. No melatonin was involved but she does take it now to help her sleep as she also has ADHD which was diagnosed last year. I have tried one of her melatonin capsules myself and they won't make your child feel artificially drugged but they do actually make you feel naturally tired, they are very good. I hope everything goes okay for both of you. These things are certainly sent to try us aren't they.

Original poster

buzylizy · 30/01/2006 18:50

I spoke to the hospital today and they said they will work with me to do what is best for dd. So I am just going to go armed with a big bag of "distractions" I will let you know how I get on.

OP posts:

KateandtheGirls · 31/01/2006 04:01

My 6 year old daughter Caroline had an EEG earlier this month to look for abnormal brain activity as part of a whole series of tests because of concerns withher development. (Turns out the EEG showed she has benign epilepsy - she has never had any seizures, to my knowledge.)

This is in the US, but the neurologist gave us instructions to bring her in with no more than 4 hours sleep, putting her to bed at midnight and waking her at 4am. (The test was at 8am.) She did much better than I could have hoped for. I'm a single parent, but I have a wonderful supportive boyfriend who stayed with us for the week. I palmed my other daughter off on her aunt, and my boyfriend and I put all our concentration into Caroline.

We took her out for a late dinner, followed by ice cream, the night before, then I stayed up with her to watch her favourite movies, while bf got some sleep. It wasn't until about 11:50 that she got really sleepy. My bf woke her up at 4, while I slept for another hour. He gave her a shower (the hair needs to be clean for an EEG) and then the 2 of them went for a walk in the dark with torches. (She thought that was great.)

The doctor's office is a 40 minute drive away, so I sat in the back of the car with her and had to poke her a couple of times to keep her awake. We had breakfast at a cafe near the doc's office, and then it was time for the appointment.

She was so tired that she lay still and willingly let the technician put the electrodes on her scalp, and she fell asleep during the test as she was supposed to.

I found that, by preparing for and anticipating the worst, it went a lot smoother than I had hoped.

Good luck.

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