Hey I was just wondering how many of your children with asd have epilepsy as a coexisting condition? My son has had a couple seizures that im pretty sure of but Im afraid hes having more except these are more like staring kinda upwards and blinking kinda like somethings in his eyes and bugging eyes out for a few seconds all thru-out the day and alot of head hitting and aggresion thru-out the day as well. Ive heard that as much as 30% of asd children also have epilepsy.
Anyone?
My son has been on seizure meds for 3 1/2 yrs...we get some control for awhile but they always seem to return. Mason has had many different types of seizures, and in the beginning it was hard to tell what was a seizure and what wasn't.
One of the best things to do when your son seems to be spacing out is snap your fingers in his face...if he doesn't respond that could be telling you it's more than just spacing out...most kids can't ignore snapping in the face. My son does the eye rolling during a lot of his seizures, so that seems like a red flag to me, but then again my nephew who has autism rolls his eyes upward a lot as more of a stim.
The best thing to do is get in touch with a pediatric neurologist if you haven't already done so...they will want to do EEG and probably and MRI...in the meantime you should be logging all the strange activity you are seeing from him...I would write down the time it happens, how long it lasts, how many times you try to get him to resond and what he was doing at the time...this will be some good info for the neuro...but be sure to log every stare you see...there are absence seizures that last only a couple of seconds, so even a snap in the front of his face, he is probably going to respond right away...but if it's happening many times a day then it definitely should be noted too.
Good luck...hope that helps some.
My son has been on seizure meds since Feb. They started with a virus (they are the staring and stiffening type) and he just had a 36 hour video eeg which showed no seizure activity. We are hopeful that they are febrile but we are not sure. He will be on meds for a while.Paws- He had an eeg for the first two which were more obvious ones. It only lasted an hour and they didnit get any reading when he was awake because we could not wake him up no matter how hard we tried! Nuero reviewed it right after with us and everything seemed normal. I didnt think that was enough time to show anything and as far as I know I dont think he has anything I consider that might be seizures in his sleep! We are in the process of having an mri done but im stiiiill waiting for the approval paper to come in from his nuero.
emerald- The first seizure he has was more obvious (laying on the ground, head doing just like a ticking motion to the right repeatedly, unresponsive, confused, tired, loss of speech etc) Second one I actually only saw the end him laying on the ground and he was confused and tired as well again. How were your sons? Ill do the snapping my finger thats a good idea and ill also video tape it. Im taking notes on when they happen altho not as consitent Ill have to admit. They are at least 10 times a day tho. Ya i read autistic kids do things that also look like seizures and maybe it is a stim so its even more confusing!
ibgecko- whats cornelia delange syndrome? I took my son a few monthes back to the eye doctor because of light sensitivity (before i got autism dx) and he said his vision and nerve connections in eyes were all perfect? I think my sons eyes water alot or he acts like they do but dont really look like it all the time too. Doc said it keeps happening i should bring him back but it still is and Im sure its just cuz of his sensory issues.
Thanks guys so much!