Possible toddler seizure caused by a drive-in movie?

[michelleklu]

My family went to the drive-in theater for Father's Day. My 2 year old daughter was playing in the grass, eating, and very happy. When the movie started she crawled into my lap. After a couple of seconds of watching the movie she shut her eyes very tightly and her eye balls seemed to be going up and down quickly. I tried playing with her because sometimes she'll be silly and just pretend to fall asleep when I'm talking to her. Usually she responds when I say her name and ask her if she's being silly. My husband tried to tickle her but we were so scared that like 5-10 seconds into it my husband physically tried to open one of her eyes. She seemed to wake up after that. We were scared and called his sister that had childhood seizures while turning off the radio and getting ready to leave. She then had another very short episode. After each of these episodes she seemed scared and held me tightly. As we were leaving the drive-in she kept trying to watch the movie and had another very short episode where she shut her eyes tightly. She was in her car seat so I didn't get to see if her eyes were moving rapidly again. After the last instance, she was quiet for awhile then after a minute or two was talking and interacting like normal. We are going to call the doctor in the morning to get it checked out. Does this sound like a seizure? Her eyes were the only part of her body that seemed affected. She didn't seem to get hot during them. Was she just overwhelmed with the sound and movie? She's watched television before, a movie on the laptop, music videos on the laptop and once I discovered some weird feature on a program on my phone that was like strobe light and blinking rapidly. She just laughed at it. Do the tests for epilepsy/seizures take long or will they frighten her? I really don't want to strap her down but it would help to know what to expect. For what its worth, we don't do vaccines and she hasn't been sick recently.

[Chamomile Girl]

Based on the behavior described its very difficult to know if it was a seizure. However I can tell you that if your Ped is concerned a EEG and a MRI will probably be ordered for your child. This happened to us recently, and because our issue was resolved in other ways we did not do the testing. They did tell us that they planned to sedate our child for the MRI which I did not like (although I understand why they would need to).

At our hospital there is a very long waiting list for these proceedres to be administered on an outpatient basis, so they checked us into the hospital so DS could access them inpatient. It was rather disconcerning.

[michelleklu]

Thank you, Chamomile Girl. Just curious what do you mean that it was resolved in other ways? You don't have to share if you don't want to! I'm just dying to know every step and precaution I can take. Also can you, or anyone else out there, explain how an MRI can tell if she's having seizures if she's not having them at the time? Also does anyone know if the only cause of visually induced seizures is "photosensitive epilepsy" or is there something else I could be reading about?

[Chamomile Girl]

The MRI would be to make sure there was not anything scary like a brain tumor going on. To make sure that the physical map of the brain was consistant with your child's age etc. The Ped Neuralologist we spoke with said that the EEG could measure discernable differences in brain electricity that would speak to seziure as a possible diagnosis even if a seziure were not in progress at the time of the test.

Our kid had chronic constipation, so the docs wanted to clean him out before testing (which they did...yeek!) Since then he has not had another "episode" so I guess they were related.

I totally understand how scary it is though.

[MCatLvrMom2A&X]

Lights flashing the way it can in some movies can cause seizures. I know this from a cousin of dh's who's little girl cant even drive at night due to the lights going by causing her to seize.

[michelleklu]

Okay, I can't stop worrying. The thing is that this is the only time its happened in her life and I really am unsure if I want to proceed with an MRI. Honestly, do you think it is necessary right now or would I be okay waiting to see if it happens again? Do you know what they use to sedate the child? What happens in an EEG? The doctors I've dealt with in this area are so pushy and pressuring. In my opinion, they have fought with me over unnecessary procedures. I'm just trying to decide what I think is best so I can be certain of what I want to stand up for.

Chamomile Girl, how often did your child have seizures and how long ago did it start?

I should really write down all these questions and ask the doctors as well. Thank you for offering me some knowledge to settle my mind in the mean time!

[Chamomile Girl]

EEG is where they put stickypads on the child's head to measure brain electricity. From what I understand its pretty non-tramatic for a kid.

My kid had about 15 strange "seziure-like episodes" in one 20 hour period after which I got him into the doc pronto and we found ourselves unexpectedly in the hospital. This was just the week before last so its very fresh in my memory .

In your situation I would wait to see if it happens again. Our Ped said that is what she normally reccomends to parents.

Oh, and the other thing they will ask you is if she had a fever at the time. I guess fever-induced febrile seizures are somewhat common. My very good friend had this happen to her daughter recently, and even though her DD stopped breathing during the seizure (this is unusual, so please do not worry) the ER docs just told her to watch her daughter closely for a few days. Man.

[mamadelbosque]

Hi! I had/have 'epilepsy'/'seizure disorder' - I had (1) tonic-clonic/grand mal status seizure when I was six, was in a coma for like two weeks and the hospital for IDK how long. I've *never* had another. I was on phenobarbitol (120mg a day) from the time I was 6 till I got pregnant w/ ds1 (when I weaned myself off it after finding out it was bad for baby - to which my doc told me I was an idiot for getting preg (twasn't on purpose! I swear!), and an idiot for stoping taking it. Haven't seen him since, about 4 yrs ago now.

SO, I've (needless to say had a few cat scans & MRI's and dozens of eeg's. None of them are a lot of fun, but all pretty painless (though I don't think I was ever sedated for the mri/cat scan, course' I was a bit older and could lie still). EEG's are totally harmless - they glue little electrodes to your head and measure brain activity. They know what 'normal' looks like and what 'seizure' looks like and I always had lots of 'seizure activity' though it never manifested (though, I have wierd little tics occasionally that I personally have long suspected are actually seizures ).

Strobe lights or similar are a common 'trigger' for seizures - they always gave me headaches (still do), and some movies can be strobe-like in certain parts, so its certainly possible the movie was indeed setting her off in some way.

Personally, I'd do the testing if one of my kids ever had suspected seizures - epilepsy is *usually* treatable with meds, though it may take some playing to find one that works and doesn't give your dc nasty side effects. Good luck!!

[JaneS]

Originally Posted by Chamomile Girl

Our kid had chronic constipation

This could be a symptom of food allergies/intolerances causing gut inflammation and the inability to absorb certain nutrients ... deficiencies in key nutrients can lead to seizures.