Weird seizure trigger question

[kristen18]

My daughter has epilepsy and when she has seizures there is usually a trigger, like an illness or sleep deprivation. Last Tuesday, we tried Barton for the first time. That afternoon, her seizures started up. She had a number of them Tuesday, and one on Wednesday morning. She has been fine since then, until today. I had put the Barton aside and tried it again today, she had a seizure this afternoon. Can using a certain part of the brain trigger a seizure? We couldn't come up with any other possible trigger. 

[PeterPan]

I'm no expert on seizures or brain structure, but it sure seems reasonable. You would need to talk to her doctor. They could look at scans to see what parts of the brain have been affected by her seizures and compare that to the parts used in the phonological processing of Barton.

 

Was she dyslexic before the seizures, or is the reading disability due to damage from the seizures? It may be you're going to need to approach this a different way. How old is she?

 

The Eides have some information on brain scans and dyslexia that they've posted on their blog in the past. 

[kristen18]

Thanks for the response, I'll check out that information. She's 16, and has had epilepsy since she was 11 months old. She has had a mixture of public/private/and homeschool. Her most recent evaluation included the diagnosis of specific learning disorder with impairment in reading. They suggested OG based instruction, so we went with Barton. She was always on the slow side with reading. When we were concerned when she was younger, the public school said she was within the average range. Looking back, I think they may have redefined "average" to get out of giving services. 

[EKS]

Looking back, I think they may have redefined "average" to get out of giving services. 

 

The "average" range is pretty broad.  Kids at the bottom have not mastered grade level skills (and actually, kids who are dead average have not actually mastered grade level skills either, but no one is going to admit that).

[kristen18]

The "average" range is pretty broad.  Kids at the bottom have not mastered grade level skills (and actually, kids who are dead average have not actually mastered grade level skills either, but no one is going to admit that).

 

That's scary. Our first go at homeschooling was in response to feeling that was the case. We did Phonics Pathways back then, and that seemed to catch her up a good amount. High school level material, especially the amount of reading required, is overwhelming to her at this point. I'm trying to change things up with more videos, and reading to her. 

[happycc]

Seizures can be triggered by a number of things: lack of sleep, hunger, thirst, stress, flashing lights, emotions, stress, illness, that time of month etc etc. 

 

 

Stress can trigger it as well as as stimulating parts of the brain that hasn;t been stimulated before. I have had three kids with seizures and have seen seizures with kids who are about to go through a major developmental leap as a result of a new therapy just getting started. 

 

Keep the Barton going and perhaps consider an increase of meds. 

 

 

[exercise_guru]

This sounds very overwhelming my heart just ached reading that because seizures are so confusing. That must have been disconcerting to have this happen while you were teaching a new method.

 

I have an unconventional idea. I studied neurophysiology in school and would appreciate data if my child had something like this.

 

They have stress monitors that a child wears like a fitbit I wanted to get one but I wasn't sure it would track sleep as well. It might be helpful to try one. They are spendy like 100 to 200 but they go on the wrist . The fitbit industry is getting into it because a lot of people are trying to control stress. By next year I am sure they will have a better app for this. My daughter's doesn't have the stress feature it just tells her to.meditate so.i doubt it would give you any helpful information to identify trends ans teiggers. I think garmin has one. Also I can't remember the name but there is another brand with a cool wristband that tracks all kinds of data on stress throughout the day. It might help you spot the triggers. Not sure if it also had the sleep feature. The technology is just developing here are some reviews of wearable stress monitors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Have you tried having your child listen to the classical filtered music? How I found out about ILS ...we had a friend who's very young child had seizures and she was using ILS. I am not sure why and who Recomended it.she also was using the ketogenic diet. Back when we were in touch she was struggling to figure it all out. They ran every test imaginable. I haven't talked to her in years but I will run into her in a few weeks at a reunion and ask if anything helped. If so I will post here.

 

If the Barton might be triggering it you could try playing meditation type music and getting your child in a calm state. Then trying a small amount of Barton. So sorry this sounds very overwhelming to be trying to teach a child and a seizure is occurring.

 

Keeping a daily journal of observations might help figuring out triggers etc.

 

I am speaking way out of my knowledge base so none of this might be helpful it's just what I would try if it were my kiddo

Edited January 1, 2018 by exercise_guru

[happycc]

A lot of those monitors are for those with convulsive seizures. I have children with petit mal, complex partials and drop seizures-where they suddenly just drop on the ground. I only had one child with convulsive seizure. So just be aware of those monitoring watches. 

 

My youngest son had seizures every time we did speech therapy. So we did sign language a bit more. We didn't totally stop speech therapy but we replaced it with sign language and speech at the same time (we signed while speaking). We didn't overwork that part of the brain too much but it was still being worked. Hope that helps. 

 

Definitely agree with the journal but it can drive you batty trying to figure out every little thing that could trigger your child. Things are at a lull right now but over the holidays one of my daughters was a mess. Medication changes etc. Make sure you take to your child's neurologist about this.