Anyone Have an Infant on Keppra?

[Starburst]

My son just turned one this month and is still having seizures. The doctor said we now have more options for treating him. The last EEG showed that he is having focal seizures, and the doctor said that Keppra would be the best choice of medication for his situation. He is now tapering down the phenobarbital (a six-week process) and has started taking Keppra this week.

Does anyone have an infant taking Keppra? What have your experiences been?

So far, my son really hates the taste of the medication. He gags each time and once vomited after taking it. I can't easily mix it into his food or drink because he is still young and does not always finish even a small glass of juice or bite of food.

Besides that, the medication is making him really drowsy. My son is generally very active, but each time he takes a dose of Keppra he lies down on the ground and falls asleep. I am okay with this at night but don't really like to see it after the morning dose. It makes me feel like he is drugged or spaced out.

He also hasn't been eating well since starting the medication.

Will these side effects hopefully disappear over time as his body adjusts to the medication?

[KarenB]

Our son was on Keppra from 18 months to 2 years of age. In his case, it didn't help the seizures. I don't remember it making him especially drowsy (but that was 6 years ago), but a lot a seizure meds will do that in the first one or two weeks, and then the drowsiness tapers off.

One big side effect of Keppra is emotional -- depression and even anger. Can a baby get depressed? Well, ours seem to cry a little more in the beginning, but he wasn't a baby that cried a lot. But when he was weaned, 6 months later, boy did we notice a difference - he was smiling and laughing all the time!! So, I guess he was depressed, but we didn't realize it so much until he was weaned.

[Starburst]

Thank you for your response. Two weeks later, the issue about drowsiness is a bit better now, and my son no longer gags when taking the medicine. I do still feel that he is a bit slow or "spaced out" which is something I feel really uncomfortable with. It is still too early to tell whether my son will benefit from this medication, but I pray he does. The difficult and heartbreaking thing about this age is that they cannot tell you how they are feeling.

[Starburst]

Well, it's been another month, and my son is still taking Keppra. He is currently taking 350 mg twice a day. He went through a bad spell of diarrhea for three weeks that I think may have been due to the medicine. He is still somewhat drowsy at times, but a lot better than he was before. The seizures are much less, but he had a fairly strong one the other night when he went to bed an hour late. The doctor said we can keep increasing the dose until we reach 500 mg twice a day.

After that I don't know what our options will be. I don't know if the doctor will switch him to another medication or add another one.

Anyone have experience with this?

Also, I was surprised to read on the package insert for Keppra that it is not recommeded to give Keppra to children younger than 4 years old.

Does anyone have thoughts on why doctors sometimes prescribe it anyway?