Is it Okay to Give Keppra to an Infant?

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Starburst

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Hi Everyone,
My son (who is 14 months old) recently started taking Keppra after being weaned off phenobarbitol. Reading the package insert, I was surprised to find that it is not recommended to give Keppra to children younger than 4 years old because the long-term effects for infants and young children are not yet known. I presume that the neurologist prescribed this medication because he believes it is the best one for my son at this time, but it was kind of scary to read this information coming from the maker of Keppra itself. The neurologist we are seeing does not favor other medications right now because of the potential to cause other problems, such as kidney/liver damage. Just wondering if anyone else has given Keppra to an infant and if they had any problems of any kind.
 
Hi Um-Adam

I have had my 5 year old on keppraand our individual experience was that he got extremely aggressive especially in conjunction with 2 other meds so we are going off it slowly with improvements to behaviour almost immediately.

I hope that helps
 
Our son was on Keppra from age 18 months to 24 months (a 6 month period). It was his first seizure medication.

He didn't seem to have any bad side effects except for a bit of depression. Hard to tell if a baby is depressed, but in the beginning, he cried a lot (which was unusual for him), and then the crying stopped, but he didn't smile and laugh as much as he did before. After he was weaned from Keppra, he was so happy again!

The Keppra didn't seem to help his type of seizures (tonic clonic) -- at that point in time, he was averaging one seizure a month, and he had just as many seizures in the 6 months that he was on Keppra as he did before taking it.

But I know that Keppra is very effective for many people. Our Jonathan's seizures just don't respond to medications very well.
 
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