Possible absence seizures

[Anonymous]

I am a teacher and I am concerned that one of my students is having repeated absence seizures. Of course, I am not a physician, but what I've observed is very similar to what I've read about and seen on youtube. I am going to speak to the nurse, and then also to the parent (just saying "here is what I have observed.") Unfortunately, the parent is very poor and has a very limited education. What would you parents out there recommend for a teacher in my position?

[Anonymous]

You could say something like "From what I have observed Diana seems to kind of blank out every so often. It seems to be the problem could be physical. Have noticed it yourself? You might consider reporting it to the doctor."

Do not mention seizures. Do not diagnose.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You could say something like "From what I have observed Diana seems to kind of blank out every so often. It seems to be the problem could be physical. Have noticed it yourself? You might consider reporting it to the doctor."

Do not mention seizures. Do not diagnose.

This, except, I would go a notch further and say "this is something I think you should discuss with a doctor", not just "consider".

Are you in a position where you could possibly take a video of it, to show what you are talking about, but also to give the mother something to show the doctor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You could say something like "From what I have observed Diana seems to kind of blank out every so often. It seems to be the problem could be physical. Have noticed it yourself? You might consider reporting it to the doctor."

Do not mention seizures. Do not diagnose.

This, except, I would go a notch further and say "this is something I think you should discuss with a doctor", not just "consider".

Are you in a position where you could possibly take a video of it, to show what you are talking about, but also to give the mother something to show the doctor.

Maybe, "I am telling you this because it is really concerning me. I do not know if there is anything wrong, but if it were my child, I would definitely discuss this with a doctor."

[Anonymous]

The nurse is the one who needs to do this and she needs to be emphatic. There was a child in my DC's class in the exact same situation and the nurse specifically told the parents that she suspected absence seizures. This was not only correct but the child had a brain tumor. The parents think the nurse saved their child's life.

I believe school nurses can actually make it a requirement that parents take a child to the doctor in certain circumstances? I'm not saying that the nurse should be confrontational, only that she should ensure this child is seen ASAP. And she absolutely should mention the possibility of a seizure. This is not something like autism where a diagnosis shouldn't be mentioned. if a child might have strep, the nurse would call the parents and say take your child for a strep test. These parents may not know what an absence seizure is and they need to be told.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The nurse is the one who needs to do this and she needs to be emphatic. There was a child in my DC's class in the exact same situation and the nurse specifically told the parents that she suspected absence seizures. This was not only correct but the child had a brain tumor. The parents think the nurse saved their child's life.

I believe school nurses can actually make it a requirement that parents take a child to the doctor in certain circumstances? I'm not saying that the nurse should be confrontational, only that she should ensure this child is seen ASAP. And she absolutely should mention the possibility of a seizure. This is not something like autism where a diagnosis shouldn't be mentioned. if a child might have strep, the nurse would call the parents and say take your child for a strep test. These parents may not know what an absence seizure is and they need to be told.

But absence seizures are not like looking at a child's red throat via a flashlight and then saying please get a strep test because about half of all red throats are strep. A school nurse simply cannot diagnose absence seizures. And unless the school is prepared to pay for this mandated neurological examination, you are way, way, out of bounds.

And all we have so far is a teacher saying she saw a video on youtube which she thinks reminds her of this student. Wow.

[Anonymous]

As a parent who has not infrequently been in a situation where educators offer medical diagnoses or explanations for my child, I think the first response to this question is the best one.

[Anonymous]

I would caution going too far out of your lane. We've had educators do this and create problems. We were told our child seemed to be having seizures by the school OT and then the principal. We met with a neurologist and took our child in for an EEG. After all the stress that this unleashed, we found out that there was nothing wrong/everything was normal. The OT was still not convinced and tried to get us to have an MRI. Our neurologist refused.

[Anonymous]

My don's preschool 3 teacher thought he had absence seizures. She described what she saw and suggested we talk to our doctor. Later she followed up a few times, which got annoying because there was nothing neurological going on with my son. Like the PP's OT, the preschool teacher didn't believe it.

Not that it maters, but the issue for my son was that when he got too overloaded with stimuli, he shut down and became unresponsive. Eventually he learned to manage the amount of stimulation in his life and he stopped shutting down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would caution going too far out of your lane. We've had educators do this and create problems. We were told our child seemed to be having seizures by the school OT and then the principal. We met with a neurologist and took our child in for an EEG. After all the stress that this unleashed, we found out that there was nothing wrong/everything was normal. The OT was still not convinced and tried to get us to have an MRI. Our neurologist refused.

EEGs frequently cannot detect epilepsy unless the person is actively having a seizure or had one within a few hours. I'm surprised you didn't want to do the MRI just to rule out some bad possibilities.

[Anonymous]

<<I would caution going too far out of your lane. We've had educators do this and create problems. We were told our child seemed to be having seizures by the school OT and then the principal. We met with a neurologist and took our child in for an EEG. After all the stress that this unleashed, we found out that there was nothing wrong/everything was normal. The OT was still not convinced and tried to get us to have an MRI. Our neurologist refused. >>

We had the same thing happen to us, right down the the same players -- the principal, the OT, the OT pusying MRI, the doctor refusing. I thought we were the only ones!

We ultimately, years later, wound up having an MRI bc the troubling behaviour persisted. MRI and overnight EEG were normal

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would caution going too far out of your lane. We've had educators do this and create problems. We were told our child seemed to be having seizures by the school OT and then the principal. We met with a neurologist and took our child in for an EEG. After all the stress that this unleashed, we found out that there was nothing wrong/everything was normal. The OT was still not convinced and tried to get us to have an MRI. Our neurologist refused.

EEGs frequently cannot detect epilepsy unless the person is actively having a seizure or had one within a few hours. I'm surprised you didn't want to do the MRI just to rule out some bad possibilities.

It wasn't us that didn't want to do the procedure. The neurologist didn't think it was necessary. Neither did our pediatrician. So yeah, we decided to go with the recommendation the doctors gave us and not the OT's.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would caution going too far out of your lane. We've had educators do this and create problems. We were told our child seemed to be having seizures by the school OT and then the principal. We met with a neurologist and took our child in for an EEG. After all the stress that this unleashed, we found out that there was nothing wrong/everything was normal. The OT was still not convinced and tried to get us to have an MRI. Our neurologist refused.

EEGs frequently cannot detect epilepsy unless the person is actively having a seizure or had one within a few hours. I'm surprised you didn't want to do the MRI just to rule out some bad possibilities.

If you're trying to suggest that an MRI would have shown a tumor or abnormality, that would hardly have resulted in just absence seizures.

[Anonymous]

My child had what we thing was an absence seizure in school. We were called by the nurse the day of and told about the incident. You should call the nurse if this happens in class and the nurse should contact the parent. He needs to see a pediatric neurologist. Children's accepts charity cases.
BTW, my child is on meds and doing great now.

[Anonymous]

Interesting perspective from the other side:

My teacher told my mother she noticed me blanking out during the day in class. My mother never did anything about it - because she thought I was just spacy sometimes. A few months later I had a seizure (grand mal) in front of my entire class.