A little confused

[tigger]

Can anybody answer a question for me please

My little one has had one T/C in Jan this year and has since then has had about 4 partials and one absence.
We believe that she still has night seizures from time to time. We mentioned this to her consultant as we notice blood stains on her bed and she is sometimes very very tired in the morning.
Her doctor has put this down to a nose bleed which I feel is completely wrong.
She has lots of pins and needles and we do see a pattern. I have an aunt and uncle who have Epilepsy. We have never been told that our girl has epilepsy and is not on any anti-epileptic drug's.
Suddenly everything has stopped. Not sure if she has just decided to stop telling us about things because I am sure she is scared about everything.

Can epilepsy suddenly stop or is this more and likely to just be a little break from things. Stess is her main trigger and that has settled down for her at the moment but could start up again soon.
By the way she's 8 years old.

[RobinN]

Anything is possible.
I would take it as a warning signal though that something has not been right in her personal environment, and it could rear it's ugly head again if you do not be extra diligent with her nutrition, toxins, vitamins, sleep, stress, etc.

Eight year olds should not have any stress.... so begin there. Nutrition can certainly help them to cope better with their world. But any family issues certainly need to also be looked at.

Hope the positives become the norm for you .

[tigger]

Thank you

I agree for her age she should not be getting stressed but she really does and she gets so low with it. I'm not really sure she knows why to be honest.
We have watched her eating and cut down sweets and try to keep her as calm as possible . She only really drinks water to be honest and she is happy with that. You tend to get warning signs.

I did wounder if I was letting my guard down to soon

[Loudmouth]

You may find that controlling her aspartame intake will also help, I have cut it out of my daughter's diet completely and found it has made quite a difference until now, as she is getting stressed about moving into her final year of primary school, and we are also applying for secondary school in a couple of months,with a high chance she may not get the same school as her friends as they have siblings already at the secondary when she doesn't,and about her year 6 SATS tests, so all in all, over the last month, i am noticing a slight increase in her absences again due to stress, but that aside, the aspartame has helped for the last year, it has been very noticable,even to the school, going from 3-7 a school day to 2-6 during a whole week at school.It is found in a lot of children's sweets and also diet foods and a lot of soft drins.once you get the hang of reading the food labels it becomes quite easy to eradicate it from their diet, it's worth a try. it took about 4-6 weeks to really notice a difference as i didn't realise how many things contained aspartame nowadays.(she's 10 1/2 now, i've never given her medication as i feel the ethosuxamide she was told to take had far too many side effects and they outweighed the possible benefits)

[hawke86]

The seizures maybe just temporary. She might out grow them. It just depends.

[Bernard]

Your best bet would be to get some diagnostic testing done (EEG, video EEG, etc.) to see if there is any epileptiform activity occurring.

[skillefer]

Hi Tigger! Welcome to CWE. As for your daughter....it could be that she's outgrown her seizures, and it could be that she's fibbing about them because she knows they make you stresed. I have to agree with Bernard. Especially since you do have a history of seizures in your family.

[RobinN]

This makes me want to sit down and have a heart to heart discussion with other parents. Why... we must ask ourselves, are 8 and 10 yr olds getting stressed? I think we as parents need to look at the messages that we are sending to our kids about what is important in life. Sure our society has geared us to move in this direction but we have blindly jumped on the band wagon and go with the flow.

When my daughter first started having seizures, and then had an episode of amnesia, I had to look at this possibly being caused by the brain needing to shut down. When I could, I stepped back to see what my role possibly had been in adding expectations that were simply not healthy for Rebecca. I needed to make sure that her passions were hers, that her goals were not set there because of something I might have said. I still work very hard to balance what is necessary for me as a parent to control, and to allow Rebecca to stumble and fall as a kid should, and needs to.

Young children should not have stress to the level that it is putting their health at risk.

We all need to stop and slow down and teach our children better methods of COPING. Perhaps this is not just a conversation about kids. It might be necessary for the adults of this forum to consider how they COPE with the challenges of life. I have wondered for sometime if a certain personality type does tend to be more prone to triggering the episodes, because they do not have the coping skills built in.

It would be better. in my opinion, for us all, to teach our children these skills rather than racing the clock, and climbing to the top. The process should be what is important, not the outcome.

Just a thought... as E has taught me to have quite a few.

[skillefer]

Also...just jumping on Robinn's coattails....have we stopped to think about how much we are ALL stimulated throughout the day? Stop and think....we wake up to noise (alarm clock)...and throughout the day are barraged with noises (stereos, muzac, cell phones, etc....) and visual stimulation (TV, computers, etc....). THen we go home, and sit in front of the TV or computer..... (just talking about the average American....not anybody here at CWE specifically....no offense meant), and then go to sleep (sometimes with the TV or radio on...but usually with a lit alarm clock near us). We barrage our brains with visual and auditory stimuli...we (in general) don't eat diets that are really that healthy. Most Americans don't get enough exercise....and then throw on top of that watching parents shuttle kids back and forth to different sporting event, practices, lessons, tutoring sessions, etc. *Whew* So when do these kids get to just sit and be kids? Have you ever asked your child what they daydrem about? Or what they see themsleves doing in 5 years? Or to tell you a story that they made up? I hate to say it, but thanks to the television, lots of kids don't have much of an imagination. My hubby snapped the other day at the 6 year old. I looked at him and told him to calm his jets...the kids 6. He's acting like 6 year olds act. They don't do everything perfect the first time. But that's part of being a kid....and in a way, I think we as a society have robbed them of that.

[RobinN]

Problem is, it isn't stopping there. It continues on to the pressure of the perfect college, the perfect job, the perfect house.... We are so darned tired of the PUSH that we forget how to think and feel. We allow the media to tell us how we should feel, and if we don't feel that way there probably is something wrong with us. Which is where the pharmaceutical companies jump in and tell us they have the answer that will help us.

Thinking it might be time to go back to the basics...

[skillefer]

Last month, my family did without cable, internet, and home phone service....it was wonderful! We talked, played board games, went on bike rides or walks, and did yard work together. The only bad part? The DVD player works....*sigh* oh well, you can't win em all.