Autism-World

je77ss eople that work with Reed at school wonder if he could be having seizures. I know that seizure can be higher in autistics but i don’t remember the %. Anyone have any info on what to look for and does anyones child have them?

MC :yes, My son has a seizure disorder. I do not know the % of how many autistic have seizures.
What to look for? There are different types of seizures, my son has grand mal. He usually starts by staring stright forward, his eyes are locked, he begins to make a clicking noise in his throat. You can not get his attention what so ever and he is totally unresponsive. His body locks up and is very stiff and very difficult to move. He eyes may roll upward and he is stops breathing. His face slowly begins to turn a blue color and his salvates and begins to jerk. This can late anywhere for 1 minute to 4 minutes in what we have experienced so far. He will suddenly blink and go limp. Usually he will roll over and go into a deep sleep that can last for 45 minutes to 6 or 8 hours depending upon how bad his seizure was.
He can have one or two seizures per month, to having four seizures in one day.
Their are mild seizures in which a person stares and is unresponsive. That is the sure test that a person is having a seizure…Unresponsive. Directly after a seizure, they need to sleep. If you are unsure that your son is having a seizure, it is always best to talk to your doctor about it. I would see if you can get a video tape of your son when you think he may be having a seizure and show this to a neuro. By watching this tape your neuro doctor could tell you if it was a seizure or not. However, when I told my neuro doctor of Ethan staring for a short period of time, he always asked me next, if Ethan wanted to sleep afterwards and I would say no. He did not think that Ethan was having smaller seizures but rather his autism issues that caused the staring. I would ask your school district to film him for the entire day or days until they feel that they got an episode of what they think a seizure is. If they are not sure, I am betting he is not having a seizure but just zoning out. When Ethan has a seizure there is no question about it or any doubting it.
autimom:An eeg can show a focal point for seizures. We were told that an MRI or CT wouldn’t show that kind of activity. There are absence and partial complex seizures where like MC said there is a zoning out but not necessarily the jerking. In fact for partial complex(which may be what we’re looking at) they say if you are operating a vehicle you can still maintain control and even respond with simple answers to questions. Lack of response is usally a big indicator but not always the rule.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 1st, 2007 at 4:09 pm and is filed under What is Autism.