Epilepsy is a difficult illness to come to terms with for many families, especially as it so often results in fits and seizures that make for uncomfortable viewing as your loved ones struggle to revive or keep safe a child who is experiencing an epileptic fit. Nonetheless, there are thousands of people in the world who have epilepsy, and who have grown up in caring families who have prepared them for life in the adult world. After all, this is your duty to your epileptic child: to teach and learn in order to keep them as safe as possible.
Identify Triggers
It’s not the case for all children or adults suffering from seizures, but some fits are caused by certain triggers that may at first be difficult to identify. There’s an extremely wide array of such triggers, and though the ‘standard’ interpretation of an epileptic fit is one caused by over-stimulation from bright light or snap sound, fits can be caused by anything from the stress of an argument to a period of underselling to an evening spent drinking with friends. Although some of these are not something your child will be acquainted with, of course, they are something to be wary of as they progress to the drinking age.
Once you’ve identified the triggers, there are two fundamental steps you’ll need to take:
- The first, of course, is to control and reduce your child’s exposure to the stimuli that cause fits and seizures. This might mean controlling their freedoms a little bit when they’re too young to know how to behave and keep themselves safe.
- The second important step is to inform all those around your child as to what’s likely to trigger a fit and how best to take care of that child if a fit does occur. In this way, your child will have a wide and caring support network to help them through their days.
Regular Consultations
Epilepsy and other disorders that cause fitting and seizures should be monitored closely by a doctor or physician to ascertain the general effects of the disorder, and whether it’s changing in nature as your child grows older. You’ll likely be visiting the same family doctor who first diagnosed your child, which means they’ll be well-acquainted with the progress of the illness of your child, their triggers, and the other health and circumstantial factors that affect his or her life.
These doctors will always be best-placed to propose medication for your child to reduce the risk of fitting and seizures. You’ll be able to view here all manner of medicines that, in their different ways, can help an epileptic child. Check with your doctor if you’re considering for one reason or another changing the dosage of the drug that you treat your child with. It’s never advisable for you to conduct your research alone online without first consulting with your doctor. If he gives the green light to a new medicine, it may be of help to your epileptic child.
Safety Measures
It’s a fact of life for epileptic children that now and then they will suffer from a seizure. However, the trick with this inevitability is to ensure that, wherever possible, you’re doing all you can to allow your child to lead a perfectly normal life. Seizures can be violent and random, meaning that an epileptic fit can cause harm to your child and to those around them. As such, removing sharp or hard corners from your home, creating soft places to fall into, and never locking internal doors will help keep your child from hurting themselves.
Then there’s the fact that your child will have to avoid swimming and bathing, for obvious reasons, and other lifestyle pursuits that may cause significant damage to their health and wellbeing should they experience a seizure while performing said activity. In general, bike riding and horse riding shouldn’t be seen as inaccessible for those with epilepsy. However, you should take all the precautions to ensure that your child is as safe as possible as they go about their activity. This safety includes wearing a helmet, riding in a safe and controlled zone, and having an instructor or specialist at hand to protect your child further.
School
As your child gets older and reaches the age at which they are going to school, it’s incredibly important to follow the accepted protocols when it comes to introducing your epileptic child to a new environment. This protocol includes a hazard perception test, during which you explore the school for dangers to your child, like triggers, sharp edges or increased risk zones. You’ll also want to inform staff and students, where possible, as to the illness that your child suffers and what everyone can do to accommodate for the fact that a seizure may occur.
Other details to pass to teachers and staff includes the type of medication that your child is on and the all-important things to spot that can be early signs of a seizure in your child. Often, at school, younger children will have some alarm system for them to declare they’re feeling unwell, such as a buzzer, a colored card or a digital device, which serves as an early-warning system for all around to know how to help.
Life
Moving through life, your child will pick up many skills and leisure pursuits that defy their seizures and constitute a full and healthy life. Your ultimate goal as the parent is to push them to this step in life, with careful assistance and assiduous medical and doctoral advice followed to the letter.
Children with epilepsy often report that it’s not so much the disorder as the fact that they feel it makes them miss out on a normal life and a normal childhood that they resent in their illness. So, this is the best lesson to work into providing your child with the most ‘normal’ of childhoods that will encourage them to see themselves as just as vibrant as important as all of their peers.
Preparing an epileptic child for life is an exciting and rewarding journey and one that you’ll be better-reared for with the help of the above set of tips.