My daughter Alessandra is a happy, bright, articulate 6 yr old just beginning kindergarten who has taught herself to read. She began mentioning episodes of her vision going black for just an instant about 6 months ago. These happened about once a week. When it became more frequent, we checked out her eyes---no problems and finally had an EEG the end of August. A doctor was brought into the testing room to confirm Childhood Absence Epilepsy--our official follow-up visit to review the results is Oct 3.
I've been doing a bit of research and learned that this form of epilepsy is on-set primarily in girls between the ages of 4-6 and in 80% of the cases, disappears by age 12. I have learned that the neurologists in my area tend to be skillful, yet very busy and therefore not too responsive. Since we have not seen our assigned Dr yet, I don't know his recommendation, but have been told by a few people that medication is nearly always recommended so kids stay focused and don't zone out during school. However we have not yet observed her spacing...she always tells us when it happens and gets right back to reading or whatever she was doing.
I have begun to research neurofeedback as an additional recourse (that's how I found this site). Our pediatrician is familiar with it and has investigated it for ADHD...but was not suffieciently swayed by research (or lack of) and experience to refer his patients for this treatment. He seemed dubious about it's potential for seizures/epilepsy.
Thanks for reading all this--just looking for the experience of others regarding Absence Epilepsy, children & medication and neurofeedback results. I'm trying to be prepared for our Dr. visit and the types of questions I should be asking and also mindful that it may be necesary to seek out another Dr.
Thanks :shock: (Yes, a bit like deer in headlights)
I've been doing a bit of research and learned that this form of epilepsy is on-set primarily in girls between the ages of 4-6 and in 80% of the cases, disappears by age 12. I have learned that the neurologists in my area tend to be skillful, yet very busy and therefore not too responsive. Since we have not seen our assigned Dr yet, I don't know his recommendation, but have been told by a few people that medication is nearly always recommended so kids stay focused and don't zone out during school. However we have not yet observed her spacing...she always tells us when it happens and gets right back to reading or whatever she was doing.
I have begun to research neurofeedback as an additional recourse (that's how I found this site). Our pediatrician is familiar with it and has investigated it for ADHD...but was not suffieciently swayed by research (or lack of) and experience to refer his patients for this treatment. He seemed dubious about it's potential for seizures/epilepsy.
Thanks for reading all this--just looking for the experience of others regarding Absence Epilepsy, children & medication and neurofeedback results. I'm trying to be prepared for our Dr. visit and the types of questions I should be asking and also mindful that it may be necesary to seek out another Dr.
Thanks :shock: (Yes, a bit like deer in headlights)