Absence seizures

[spikeyfish]

Ds is 11 , he is diagnosed with autism and a learning disability. A few weeks ago he unexpectedly had a seizure at school, was taken to hospital but no reason was found as to why it had happened so we took him home and were told to take him back if it happened again.

Over the last few weeks myself, school and restbite have all witnessed what I can only describe as absences. He will stare into space and will not respond to my voice or being touched. His eye lids will also often flutter. He is having multiple at once at times and sometimes becoming tired afterwards. We have also noticed a twitch on his right hand side. We have a neurology referral but I have no idea when he will actual get seen. I'm really concerned and just need a bit of a hand hold to be honest.

Does anyone here have any experience with absence seizures? How was your child diagnosed and are they under control now?

Hi. My son has absences. They started at 4. He was diagnosed because I captured them on video. He is triggered by hyperventilation (90% of children with absences are) so I got him to blow on a tissue until he had one. I wouldn't recommend doing this though in case he goes into a tonic clonic.

Do you have any specific questions? My DS is on two medications currently but they're not working unfortunately, though he is a bit more complex than usual absence epilepsy. So we are looking to wean one and introduce another.

He is managed by a paediatric consultant with a special interest in epilepsy, not a neurologist. The only time we've had neurology involvement is to read his EEGs.

Oh and he has an epilepsy nurse

Hi,
My daughter was diagnosed 15 months ago with atypical absence epilepsy. We are on our third medication and still have seen very little improvement. She could not tolerate ethosuximide. We then tried frisiu, which worked for about 4 weeks. Lamictal was then used with frisium but this did not control the seizures. We recently started epilim at a low dose to counteract any side effects. I haven't seen much improvement so far and we started the therapeutic dose a day ago . When can we expect to see an improvement? Has anyone had an experience similar to ours. She has brief head nods but also sometimes has jerk like movements when they occur. They really tire her out. Should could have up to 40 in a row. They mainly happen first thing in the morning and also when she eats. She is 13 and they seem to get worse around her period. Has anyone had an experience of this? I am beginning to think we will never get these under control.