Seizures and vaccinating

[LoveOurBabies]

I hope this is the right place to put it.. My youngest had an afebrile (no fever) convulsion out of the blue, a few months ago. I suffered from febrile convulsions following vaccination as a child. Is having an afebrile seizure and a family history of febrile seizures following vaccinaton, a contraindication? I have read that it isn't, but it doesn't make sense to me. I would think that any undiagnosed seizure would be a cause for concern when it comes to vaccinating.

Any information about whether it is a true contraindication would be great.

[Marnica]

If your child had a seizure but it was not triggered by a fever, then it was not a febrile seizure. I m pretty sure the definition of a febrile seizure is one that is specifically triggered by the quick rise or falling of a fever.

As far as I know according to the CDC febrile seizures are not a contraindications for getting vaccines

[sosurreal09]

My mom had seizures and my bro has seizures. DD was born perfect and after her 2 month shots she started having seizures, small ones, only in her daytime sleep. I think the vax set them off personally.

They continued until she was 9 m/o which was when I refused to vax anymore (of course was told vax had nothing to do with her medical issues!) Within a month she was completely seizure free!

I don't care what the "experts" say or don't say about it with vax DD had seizures without vax she was cured...

[sosurreal09]

Also some of the vax do list seizures as an adverse effect I know for a fact chicken pox vax does, but I don't know them all off the top of my head.

[LoveOurBabies]

Originally Posted by Marnica 

If your child had a seizure but it was not triggered by a fever, then it was not a febrile seizure. I m pretty sure the definition of a febrile seizure is one that is specifically triggered by the quick rise or falling of a fever.

As far as I know according to the CDC febrile seizures are not a contraindications for getting vaccines

Hi Marnia, without sounding condescending, I am fully aware of what a febrile seizure is. :)

I had febrile seizures following vaccination as a child. My unvaccinated child however, had an afebrile (non febrile) seizure out of nowhere a few months ago. It was a very particular type of convulsion and not a general 'jerking everywhere' type. They still don't know what caused it and she is due to have an MRI to rule out any structural abnormality. It could be the beginning of epilepsy and or it could have been a one off event. I wanted to know if a non-febrile undiagnosed seizure is a contraindication to vaccines, especially if you add in a family history of febrile seizures following vaccination.

[Super~Single~Mama]

Originally Posted by LoveOurBabies 

Hi Marnia, without sounding condescending, I am fully aware of what a febrile seizure is. :)

I had febrile seizures following vaccination as a child. My unvaccinated child however, had an afebrile (non febrile) seizure out of nowhere a few months ago. It was a very particular type of convulsion and not a general 'jerking everywhere' type. They still don't know what caused it and she is due to have an MRI to rule out any structural abnormality. It could be the beginning of epilepsy and or it could have been a one off event. I wanted to know if a non-febrile undiagnosed seizure is a contraindication to vaccines, especially if you add in a family history of febrile seizures following vaccination.

Seizures are terrifying - my DS had a few febrile seizures (NOT vax related) and it was the most terrifying thing that has ever happened.

I do vax my ds, but if I were you I would wait until you know what the seizure was caused by before changing anything like vax status - the fewer the variables the better when determining the cause.  I certainly hope it was a one time thing for your child, as it seems to have been for mine (its been 1.5 years since our one time febrile seizure).

Ok, I'm done forum crashing.

[ma2two]

"Progressive neurologic disorder, including infantile spasms, uncontrolled epilepsy, or progressive encephalopathy is a contraindication to administration of any pertussis-containing vaccine, including INFANRIX. Pertussis vaccine should not be administered to individuals with these conditions until a treatment regimen has been established and the condition has stabilized."

http://www.fda.gov/downloads/BiologicsBloodVaccines/Vaccines/ApprovedProducts/UCM124514.pdf

[my3peanuts]

I would absolutely hold off with vaccinations until you're very clear what the cause of the seizure was from. My son had a seizure following vaccines at 2 months and went on to develop epilepsy. He had an underlying metabolic disease that likely predisposed him to seizures regardless but the vaccine definitely triggered them and who knows how long he may have went before they started had he not been vaccinated at 2 months. He has not received vaccines since.

Without knowing the underlying cause of the seizures it's difficult to know if it's truly a contraindication. Technically, no. Even though my sons seizure followed his vaccines within less than 48 hours no doctor will agree that it was even a possible adverse event.

[emmy526]

Quote:

Even though my sons seizure followed his vaccines within less than 48 hours no doctor will agree that it was even a possible adverse event.

of course they won't!!! God forbid if they should determine vaccines should have anything to do with a child's health turning for the worse...esp right after receiving multiple injections. 

[Marnica]

Originally Posted by LoveOurBabies 

Hi Marnia, without sounding condescending, I am fully aware of what a febrile seizure is. :)

I had febrile seizures following vaccination as a child. My unvaccinated child however, had an afebrile (non febrile) seizure out of nowhere a few months ago. It was a very particular type of convulsion and not a general 'jerking everywhere' type. They still don't know what caused it and she is due to have an MRI to rule out any structural abnormality. It could be the beginning of epilepsy and or it could have been a one off event. I wanted to know if a non-febrile undiagnosed seizure is a contraindication to vaccines, especially if you add in a family history of febrile seizures following vaccination.

My mistake.....reading your initial post quickly I missed the an afebrile and simply read a febrile.....in any case I agree with above posters, while febrile seizures may not be a contraindications, I think seizures if an unknown orgin would def be a reason to stop until you can figure out what's going on. Hope you find some answers soon. 

[sosurreal09]

Originally Posted by emmy526 

of course they won't!!! God forbid if they should determine vaccines should have anything to do with a child's health turning for the worse...esp right after receiving multiple injections. 

They did the same thing to me! After all those months of pain and horrible reactions (she had more than seizures) they DENIED any connection! She was CURED when we stopped vaxing! To boot 6 months after she was completely healed I got talked into doing just one isolated HIB to "complete" the series (they used menengitis scare tactics on me) and 50% of her symptoms came back (but not the seizures) and they STILL denied it....took 7 months to heal from that last shot it was horrible!

[Taximom5]

I would stay FAR awy from vaccines (in fact, I do).

Your doctor is probably not aware that vaccines can cause seizures as long as 3 WEEKS after a vaccination.

Our pediatrician didn't even realize that a seizure one HOUR after a vaccine (actually, 4 vaccines) was a reaction, even though our child had never before (or after) had a seizure.

They are taught in medical school that vaccine reactions are incredibly rare, and only seen in 3rd world countries, and that parents will report a hiccup as a seizure and should not be taken seriously, etc.

Once you realize that the doctors teaching in medical school are also paid representatives of the pharmaceutical industry, it all begins to make sense: http://www.propublica.org/article/pharma-ties-at-harvard-medical-school

[dbsam]

Originally Posted by my3peanuts 

Even though my sons seizure followed his vaccines within less than 48 hours no doctor will agree that it was even a possible adverse event.

  My daughter's first seizure was within 24 hours of vaccination.  The ped told me, repeatedly, that they could not be seizures and once we determined she did have epilepsy (at almost age three) all the doctors said it could not be from vaccinations.  Unfortunately, I continued to vaccinate for almost three years until we discovered she truly was having seizures.  We stopped vaccinating at age three, she continued to have seizures and was on meds for several years.  Now, at age 7.5 she is on no meds, has had a couple of clean EEGs, but as of her last extended EEG a week ago she had a new type of abnormal brain activity - although no seizures.

Like pp's, I would not continue vaccinating at this time.  I regret not stopping vaccinations after her first seizure.

[Taximom5]

For anyone whose child has seizures--whether vaccine-related or not--you might want to look at the possibility that diet, particularly gluten-containing foods, can be contributing to or even causing seizures.

http://www.glutenfreesociety.org/gluten-free-society-blog/leaky-brain-seizures-epilepsy-gluten-sensitivity/

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11483831

Since vaccines can trigger autoimmune disorders such as celiac disease, this obviously doesn't rule out any link between vaccines and seizures.

[my3peanuts]

Very interesting information! For us, our son has seizures due to an underlying mitochondrial disorder but this is definitely something for those who have not found an underlying cause.

[AurorasMommy]

My daughter had her first seizure following her DTaP vaccine (11 hours after) when she was 2 months old. She continued to seize on and off for 3 weeks... at this point it was found that she had a stage 4 intercranial bleed. The DTaP vaccine caused her brain to swell, which in return caused her to inconsolably cry which increased her blood pressure, which burst a weak vessel in her brain. She now is 6 years old and has intractable epilepsy which has taken us 4 years to get under control!

[Taximom5]

Please, all of you, look into gluten as an additional cause/trigger of seizures. There are a lot of studies on this, but we never hear about them (Big Pharm makes more money from anti-seizure meds than from diet changes. 

One of the biggest failings of science-based medicine is that they only look for one cause--when in fact there is often a perfect storm of several causal factors.  So when they find one link, they just stop looking for others.