Anyone Have a Child with Absent Epilepsy?

Hi L.,

I think you mean....Absence Epilepsy....this is a type of seizure disorder where the child blanks out for a few seconds, and when they return, could be a bit disoriented or groggy, but try to resume what they were doing where they were.

I would highly recommend you find a local epilepsy support group. Almost all hospitals and large cities have their own epilepsy foundations. If not, please contact one and start one in your city yourself.

Go online and search too.

http://www.epilepsy.com/epilepsy/epilepsy_childhoodabsence

It's important to monitor this type of seizure, as it can become worse overtime if not treated and monitored properly.

Sorry, I don't have children with this..my husband treats it all the time. And the support groups he talks to are a phenomenal network for each other.

Ditto Yvonne, neuro-science research is finding that that high fat, low carb diets tremendously benefit and protect the brain.

You can google...the Ketogenic Diet...it's becoming widely used for the treatment of certain epilepsy's. Don't do that alone though...just make common sense adjustments at home....like drinking Whole Milk, eat bacon, eggs, cook with butter, cheese. Do not feed her any processed, packaged sweets that have a long shelf life. Only fresh and natural.

I don't have a child with it, but I do have a friend whose daughter has it. They have found that putting her daughter a low carb diet greatly reduces the number of seizures she has.

Hi L. - My daughter was 4 1/2 when she was diagnosed with absence seizures. We definitely had a rough start with her medication. We originally started with the sprinkle Depakote - which we would use yogurt. She quickly learned to gag herself so the medication would come back up. She also had terrible side effects - very angry, kicking, screaming, throwing HUGE fits - which just wasn't like her.

We then switched to the liquid form but had to get blood work every week to make sure her liver enzymes didn't increase. Unfortunately they did increase so we had to bridge her from Depakote to Lamictil with Clanazapham (sp?) - which a cousin to valium. Not a permanent solution since the doctor didn't want her to become immune to such medications as valium.

The Lamictil WORKED GREAT!!!!! I can't say enough great things about it. She did have on break-through seizure while taking Lamictil, so we just up-ed her dose. I say it WORKED great because since the end of July this year (2 1/2 years on medication) she has been off her meds with not a seizure since. She certainly isn't out of the woods yet, but most kids by the age of 9 or 10 outgrow absence seizures.

I'd be happy to chat with you outside this forum if you'd like.

K.

My son did not end up having absence epilepsy but he was having seizures every time he was starting to get sick, not necessarily a high fever. This took a while to figure out. The best advice I can give you is see a neurologist at Children's Memorial hospital, they are the best. We made the mistake and went to a neurologist our ped recommended and she was a nightmare. She saw kids and adults. You want a doctor that specializes in kids only.

We opted not to use meds, he was having petit mal seizures in clusters. We did have an emergency med to use if he had 4 seizures in a row (Diastat which is valium administered rectally) We did not like the side effects either and our doctor worked with us.

I liked what the one poster wrote about diet, a good point to investigate.