Continued
By Dr Santosh Mhetre (Paediatric consultant)
What to tell your doctor
Most doctors will never see your child have a seizure; they don’t happen often in the doctor’s office. It will help the doctor if you write down what the child was doing just before the seizure began, what happened during the seizure, how long it lasted, and how quickly your child recovered afterwards.
Diagnosis
Talk to your doctor if your child has seizures, staring spells, confusion spells, shaking spells, or unexplained deterioration of school performance. He will take a medical history and examine your child, looking for findings that suggest problems with the brain and the rest of the neurological system.
If the doctor suspects epilepsy, tests will be ordered, which may include:
* Electroencephalography (EEG), which measures electrical activity in the brain via sensors secured to the scalp while the child lies on a bed. Usually the doctor will ask that a child be sleep-deprived (put to bed late and awakened early) before this painless test, which takes about 1 hour.
* A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) test or a computerized tomography (CT) scan, both of which look at images of the brain.
Treating epilepsy
Your doctor will use the test and exam results to determine the best form of treatment. Medication to prevent seizures is usually the first type of treatment prescribed for epilepsy management. Many kids can be successfully treated with one medication — and if the first doesn’t work, the doctor will usually try a second or even a third before resorting to combinations of medications.
Although medications often work, if your child is unresponsive after the second or third attempt, it’s less likely that subsequent medications will be effective. In this case, surgery to remove the affected part of the brain may be necessary. Epilepsy surgery is required in less than 10% of seizure patients.
Additional treatments like surgery or modification of diet can be tried in non-responsive epilepsy. Even people who respond successfully to medication sometimes have seizures (called ‘breakthrough seizures’). These don’t mean your child’s medication needs to be changed, although you should let the doctor know when they occur.
Living with epilepsy
To help prevent seizures, make sure your child:
* takes medication as prescribed
* avoids triggers (such as fever and overtiredness)
* sees the neurologist as recommended — about two to four times a year — even if responding well to medication}
Keeping your child well-fed, well-rested, and non-stressed are all key factors that can help manage epilepsy. You should also take common-sense precautions based on how well-controlled the epilepsy is. For example:
* Younger kids should have only supervised baths, and older kids should take showers — and only when there is someone else in the house.
* Swimming or bike-riding alone are not good ideas for kids with epilepsy (although they can certainly enjoy these activities with other people). A helmet is required during cycling, as for all kids.
With some simple safety precautions, your child should be able to play, participate in sports or other activities, and generally do what other kids like to do. State driving laws vary, but teens with epilepsy will probably be able to drive with some restrictions, as long as the seizures are controlled. It’s important to make sure that other adults who care for your child — family members, babysitters, teachers, coaches, etc — know that your child has epilepsy, understand the condition, and know what to do in the event of a seizure.
