NIGHT TERRORS

[DCJenn]

Re: NIGHT TERRORS

Videos would be VERY helpful.

Since you have a family history, I don't think there will be any question about getting the referral.

My husband recently attended a conference on peds epilepsy, I can ask him if he made any contacts from your neck of the woods if you'd like.

Jenn

(We have an additional fellowship in epilepsy looming in our future...)

[GrayMatterWife]

Re: NIGHT TERRORS

Based on the details you've provided, though, he strongly suggests, that you have the child seen by a pediatric neurologist who has expertise in different forms of epilepsy in infants (as you know, not all seizures manifest as the dramatic grand mal seizures). He's got quite a bit of experience with epilepsy, too (don't ask--the mice he used in his PhD-work were bred to have epilepsy or something...). He said his first concern would be for an electrical disruption like epilepsy. He suggested that an overnight monitoring of electrical activity in the brain might be productive.

Thanks Abigail. I have an appointment scheduled with DS's ped for next Monday, so hopefully she will refer us to the pediatric neurologist (if she doesn't I will call them and set up an appointment myself). I also am worried that it might be some type of epilepsy. Both DH and I have parents who suffer from seizures and my dad and uncle both have epilepsy, so it wouldn't be a surprise. I hope it is something he will grow out of and not have to be on medication for the rest of his life

He actually has had 2 more episodes since my first post. I tried to video tape one but of course the batteries were dead in the camera! Thank your DH for me and if I have any questions I will be sure to ask!!

Don't be prematurely discouraged, though. First, you don't know what it is yet. Second, even if it is epilepsy, they have all sorts of new and promising treatments now. Plus, a lot of kids do grow out of it. My sister had seizures as a child and grew out of them, too. She hasn't taken medication since she was in elementary school. Hang in there and I'll keep you in my thoughts and prayers. Good luck at the PED-NEUR.

[SuzySunshine]

Re: NIGHT TERRORS

Hopefully you get a full and competent work up. DH says several of the neurologists at Gunderson are very good.

If they refer you here let me know.

Re: NIGHT TERRORS

Hopefully you get a full and competent work up. DH says several of the neurologists at Gunderson are very good.

If they refer you here let me know.

I hope so as well. I will get in touch with you for sure if we have to take the trek to Rochester. At any rate, we will have to meet up when we get there in June anyhow!

Re: NIGHT TERRORS

DH's appointment went okay. He is now a healthy 17 lbs. 5 oz. (up from 16 lbs. 13 oz). Not a bad weight gain in two weeks. The doc was somewhat stumped, as she has never encountered babies this young having nightmares. I told her I wouldn't be all that concerned except for the history of seizures in our families. She did a pretty good exam on him, and asked a million questions about his development and sleeping habits, etc. Then she went and talked with one of her collegues and she basically told me that since he is developing so beautifully and not showing any signs of neurological problems, that there really isn't anything else to do. She said we can try to maybe video tape him for the first 30-60 min of his sleeping to see if we can catch him having one, because since we haven't actually seen him start to have one, we cannot be sure they aren't seizures. Perhaps he has a seizure than has the fit...but she is highly doubtful he has seizures. She said that babies/children who have seizures show SOME neurological problem upon physical exam OR have something not right with their development. And since he hasn't anything like that, we will just watch and see. Basically she said that even if we saw the pediatric neurologist, he wouldn't do anything other than what she did already. So, hopefully they won't happen anymore.

I read a paper in Science from 1966 that states that fetuses as young as 5 and 6 months in the womb dream. And that actually in all of our lives, the most dreaming a person does is from birth to 6 weeks old. They figure that is why when babies turn 6 weeks or so they stop crying as much, because they stop having so many bad dreams. A baby DH's age actually dreams about 70% more than an adult, according to the paper! Despite what everyone had thought up to that point, babies indeed do dream and can have nightmares. Perhaps he just has nightmares when he gets stressed (such as having his shots or on Halloween night, having all those people coming to the door).

[DCJenn]

Re: NIGHT TERRORS

Here's the report back from my husband.

Your ped is right in the for the most part in the first year of life the kids w/ seizure disorder are more likely to have developmental issues.

However, a child neurologist can run additional tests (aka EEGs) that a general pediatrician can't do and can't read.

He says that if you're comfortable w/ waiting things out, that's fine. If things continue or escalate and you want to see a CN, just tell your ped. An EEG would be able to clearly indicate abnormal brain activity.

Glad to hear it went well.

Jenn

[Meenah]

Re: NIGHT TERRORS

How are things, any updates?