My 2(almost 3) yr old autistic daughter is suspected of having absence seizures and has been for about a year and a half now. Prior to that, she was diagnosed with febrile seizures when she was a few weeks old but they disappeared by 6 months old. Now my 14 yr old duaghter with Asperger's has started having seizures too. The doctor is classifying hers as Temoporal Lobe Seizures.

My question is, does anyone else have children with autism and seizures and when did they start? My more severely autistic child has shown problems with them since she was born, but my high functioning child did not exhibit symtoms until she was a teenager.

I guess I am just curious if there is a correlation with the degree of autism and type of seizures.

Christina

Hi Christina my nephew started having them when he was 2, they also called them "febrile seizures" over the past 15 years he has about 2- 3 a year. He will be 18 next week. Now the doctors say he has some type of "seizure disorder"
It real hard b/c he cannot tell you when they are about to start.. but one common thing my sister and I have found out is he starts having a rapid heartbeat 10 mins before. I'll be honest with you the doctors have No idea.. it sad but true and we have taken him to Fla, philly childrens hosp. New york prys. We have no clue we are just treat the seizures. if you want to know more I can put you in touch with my sister like you she wants to find someone else wh is dealing with the same thing.

They thought my son was having absence seizures but his eeg came back normal. It seems to be a quirk and having talked with a few other parents at his school, we all have noticied that if the child has been self stimulating then the spacing out tends to follow. I don't know what tests have been done, this is just what happened with us.

Hopefully your DD will be alright and this will be minor. Having 2 children on the spectrum in hard enough without any additional medical trouble.

I really hope that these are coincendental, but so far, the doctors don't think so. This is kind of a new experience for me so I'm not sure yet what to think. Bristol, my 14 yr old, EEG and MRI are scheduled for May 10th, but Fiona's are still pending because her sleep schedule is very hard to predict. Sometimes she will go to sleep at 7:00 at night and wake up frequently throughout the night and other times, she won't sleep until 5 am and then she sleeps hard for 4 hours and then wakes frequently. The hospital keeps telling me that she has to sleep from 12 am to 4 am and then has to stay up until the test, but I can't get her schedule close enough to this time period or even regular enough to schedule the test. She is going to see her neurologist on Thursday, so I am going to ask if she has any solution for this dilema. Lynn, I would be happy for any info that your sister could give. If you click on my screen name, it lists my email address. If you can't find it, let me know and I'll list it. Thanks so much!!!

Christina