Children Effected by Epileptic Moms ! I have had Epilepsy since I was 5 yrs old . I have taken differant meds for it to control it but since I was 12 I took Depakote. Now when I was 22 I got pregnent with my daughter which was not a planned pregnancy. Yet I was still very happy and excited , but worried about my medication. My family doctor who also delivered me checked my blood levels every month and did like 4 ultrasounds. Each time he told me everything looked great, which at that time we didn't have a neurologist close enough for me to go to . So I had to trust him and he seemed to be taking every precaution. Had me on the lowest does without me having a seizure, I never had a seizure throughout my entire pregnency. Well I delivered a beautiful , healthy little girl after 10 hours of labor and everything seemed fine. Well as a carrer I studied childcare and early childhood education, as well as took 2 semesters in early childhood development . Much before I thought of being a mother , I just wanted to run my own daycare or be director some day. But you see after Grace (my daughter) was born my seizures got bad due to the hormone change and I had to go on disability. I was having them at least 3 times a month and mine are all grand-mal with no warning. So for 2 years I lived with my mom and as grace grew up there were things we all noticed about her that were just not right for her age.
Such as she would sit in her carseat in the car and bounce against the little bit of slack there was in the straps so it would pull her back into the seat pretty hard. Then she would giggle , then she started just doing it on the couch bouncing up and down with her back and head. Until her bottom came up off the couch and she would do it when she was getting tired so it would wear her out more. Or she would chew on clothes, shoes, coats, anything ! When I would try and talk to her or try and get her attention sometimes she would look at me but it was like she was looking through me. I even took her for an EEG. Which came back negative.
Well now shes 4 I am working again and shes in preschool, she still rocks even if she gets sent to time out the only way to stop her in time out is to make her stand in time out. She still is chewing on coats, clothes, and odd things, she talks so fast at times that she mumbles, and she does not stop to sit completly still for even 15 seconds I have timed her. Her school did a series of 8 tests and checked her for ADD and some other behvioral issues. However in the 8 tests she came back testing clinical in 4 of the 8! Which I had tried taking her to the doctor many times and he would not see her he told me she was just being a lil girl. Then I took that test to him and I told him either he saw her or someone else would! Finally he saw her and yes he believes she may be either ADD or ADHD ! So he is sending us in the summer to a pediatrion about 150 miles from where we live who is a specialist.
The worst part is I found out from my current neurologist that Depakote may have played a huge part in the reason were having this problem with my lil girl. The effects it could have caused on the part of her brain during development could cause her to be in turbo mode all the time . Thats why even when she sleeps she grides her teeth , and moves so much , her body is telling her that its time to go. Her brain is constantly moving theres always a part of her that has to be busy even when she is sitting doesn't matter if shes talking, tapping her foot, biting on clothing, or just wiggling . So now I am very angry since 2 yrs ago I changed medications to Topamax which has way less side effects and does much less damage to your body. Of course it was not available when I was pregnant , yet if I had only knowen that Depakote would have these effects on my lil girl I would have tried something else. I just wanted to warn anyone out there who may be planning on having a child or is pregnent now if you are on Depakote ask to change it !!!!!!!!!!!! It can have long term effects that you don't discover until years after which make it even harder to treat. Now my daughter has trouble with learning certian concepts due to the fact that she only hears half of what people say , the rest of it shes in her own world . And most people think shes being naughty or bad but I honestly don't think she does it on purpose I think it is something that kinda takes her over..
Just a word of warning
If there is anyone else out there who has had trouble with medications causeing long term effects with a pregnency please reply. I feel very alone and very upset that I let this happen, I feel like I should have protected her and I am the reason she is like this !
Anyways also anyone with veiws on ADD or ADHD please reply !
Thanks
Sassy
Such as she would sit in her carseat in the car and bounce against the little bit of slack there was in the straps so it would pull her back into the seat pretty hard. Then she would giggle , then she started just doing it on the couch bouncing up and down with her back and head. Until her bottom came up off the couch and she would do it when she was getting tired so it would wear her out more. Or she would chew on clothes, shoes, coats, anything ! When I would try and talk to her or try and get her attention sometimes she would look at me but it was like she was looking through me. I even took her for an EEG. Which came back negative.
Well now shes 4 I am working again and shes in preschool, she still rocks even if she gets sent to time out the only way to stop her in time out is to make her stand in time out. She still is chewing on coats, clothes, and odd things, she talks so fast at times that she mumbles, and she does not stop to sit completly still for even 15 seconds I have timed her. Her school did a series of 8 tests and checked her for ADD and some other behvioral issues. However in the 8 tests she came back testing clinical in 4 of the 8! Which I had tried taking her to the doctor many times and he would not see her he told me she was just being a lil girl. Then I took that test to him and I told him either he saw her or someone else would! Finally he saw her and yes he believes she may be either ADD or ADHD ! So he is sending us in the summer to a pediatrion about 150 miles from where we live who is a specialist.
The worst part is I found out from my current neurologist that Depakote may have played a huge part in the reason were having this problem with my lil girl. The effects it could have caused on the part of her brain during development could cause her to be in turbo mode all the time . Thats why even when she sleeps she grides her teeth , and moves so much , her body is telling her that its time to go. Her brain is constantly moving theres always a part of her that has to be busy even when she is sitting doesn't matter if shes talking, tapping her foot, biting on clothing, or just wiggling . So now I am very angry since 2 yrs ago I changed medications to Topamax which has way less side effects and does much less damage to your body. Of course it was not available when I was pregnant , yet if I had only knowen that Depakote would have these effects on my lil girl I would have tried something else. I just wanted to warn anyone out there who may be planning on having a child or is pregnent now if you are on Depakote ask to change it !!!!!!!!!!!! It can have long term effects that you don't discover until years after which make it even harder to treat. Now my daughter has trouble with learning certian concepts due to the fact that she only hears half of what people say , the rest of it shes in her own world . And most people think shes being naughty or bad but I honestly don't think she does it on purpose I think it is something that kinda takes her over..
Just a word of warning
If there is anyone else out there who has had trouble with medications causeing long term effects with a pregnency please reply. I feel very alone and very upset that I let this happen, I feel like I should have protected her and I am the reason she is like this !
Anyways also anyone with veiws on ADD or ADHD please reply !
Thanks
Sassy
Please do not blame yourself. You did the best you could with the information you were given at the time. Children learn by watching what you do to yourself psychologically. Take care of yourself and realize that she will in turn love herself too. She will mimic you. She will probably not do as you say, but do as you do. You sound like you are a great person. I'm sure you have made a difference for some people out there by writing your email.
I am also Epileptic and I have a 5 year old daughter who is experiencing some of the same symptoms as you described. She rocks, chews on clothing and gazes. She has many unexplained outbreaks and fears of noises and transition. We are currently going through testing for autism. I took Topamax and had problems due to hormone changes during my pregnancy as well. There is no documentation of autism or sensory issues with Topamax, however I found your information interesting.
i am also an epileptic mom of two children my eldest is a 5-year- old boy who faces speech delay. during my pregnancy i took depakine chrono but with lower dose according to my neurologist's recommendation but during my last month i had a seizure. here i am struggling with him feeling guilty and responsible for what is happening to my beautiful baby. he is so clever and attending speech sessions and thank god he is improving but recently he underwent eeg and mri and the eeg turned moderate so the doctor told us that he should take medication and his speech will improve by time. to be honest i am so angry and don't want my child to face this thing but what other options do we have.
Topamax is now a category D. Just FYI.
Hi. I am just becoming epileptic due to my sever migraine and my doctor prescribed Depakine chrono 300mg. I've never taken this before, neither any other medication for such symptoms. But I do have one question. I'm not planning to have any kid in the near future, since i have 2 kids now. But is it possible to have kid in far future like 5-7 years from now? By that time will the side effect of the medication decrease? what are the recorded sources for this? I was looking for an answer for this question and that lead me to here actually. If anyone know any detail pls let me know.
Thanks
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