Absence/Depakote/???

[hootie]

My son has absence seizures. We have now increased his dose of Depakote sprinkles to five 125mg caps per day (2-1-2).

The doc called to increase his dose by one capsule. At that time I told her that my son had started biting his nails (and poking his eyes to a lesser extent) after increasing the dose from 4 caps per day to 5. She then said to hold off on increasing from 5 to 6 until my son's appointment on the 14th. She also said something about adding another med (but not which one).

From my research, it looks like Depakote and Zarontin (ethosuximide) are the only meds for absence seizures...and that absence seizures are hard to control even with meds.

What do you know about med combos for absence seizures?

Does anyone on this list have control of absence seizures with meds? How about other treatments? Already tried neurofeedback.

 

[Nakamova]

Juts curious -- did the neurofeedback help at all?


The LGIT diet has a good track record with absence seizures.

 

[hootie]

The neurofeedback made him look better on paper (according to the QEEG). During that time he became uncooperative about going to school, the pool, etc and was also more aggressive (possible more seizures???...not sure)...so I quit taking him. He was talking a little more, though. All the aggravation was not worth the $$$.

I will check out the LGIT diet as I don't think I know what it is.

 

[hootie]

OK...
I checked it out.

I am trying to give him a lower carb diet already. I was looking into the MAD diet but became frustrated because so many of the food choices contain things my son is allergic to. It is just really hard since I also deal with multiple food allergies (nuts, peanuts, eggs, soy, etc).

Reducing the carbs does seem to help so I guess I will continue to pursue the diet route...if only he could eat eggs...it would make my life easier!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

At least he likes pork rinds (we call them potato chips)...how healthy are these?
Not!!!
:sad:

 

[Nakamova]

I'm sorry the neurofeedback didn't work out. I just went to a presentation on it -- the presenter said that it takes 20 visits, and that there may be some adverse effects on sleep at the beginning that go away later in the training. They also said that if there was not enough change in the first 20 sessions, they would give another 20 sessions for free (since some kids especially take more than 20 sessions). But yeah, it's expensive, and definitely not covered by my insurance. I'd love to try it otherwise.

I hope you can make the diet work out -- it does sound tough with the allergies to consider. Are your son's doctor or neurologist helping out with the diet?

 

[hootie]

My son did 50 neurofeedback sessions. He is also on the autism spectrum so he has more issues to deal with than E.

The neuro is not helpful on the diet front. His doctor is supportive of diets but is at a loss as well due to the food allergies.

I am doing some other alternative treatments that are supposed to help with food allergies (BodyTalk). I have done other treatments in the past (BioSet, NAET) that did work (he was able to eat eggs without becoming sick)...but they did not "STICK" so he would eventually get sick with the eggs again. Body Talk is supposed to help better than the other treatments. I hope he can eat eggs again!

Time will tell...