Absence seizures - daughter newly diagnosed

[Pagea]

Hello! My daughter (9) was diagnosed with absence seizures this week and starts meds today. All seems pretty straightforward so far and she's fairly ok with it. The fact that she had a truly lovely paed look after her helped!

Hoping to connect with other parents looking after young people with absences to get advice about how protective to be. DD is so keen to be independent and do things like go to the shops on her own and walk to school by herself but even if seizures are mostly controlled, I'm not sure I can let her out of my sight let alone cross roads on her own

Struggling to find a balance in my head between letting her have freedom and keeping her safe .

Cheers

Pagea

[pmag_82]

Hi, glad to hear your daughter seems to be dealing with the diagnosis well. I don't have a child but was diagnosed with having absence seizures when I was 4 so I remember having the same feelings your daughter is currently having with regards to independence. I was lucky to have a twin who I spent a lot of time with and who was obviously very familiar with my condition so I was never completely on my own. My advice would be to begin by educating those around your daughter about the condition. In my experience Epilepsy scares people as they don't understand it. Particularly with absence seizures as you wouldn't necessarily know someone is having one unless you are watching them closely. Talk to her friends and their parents and I would advise that when going out without you she is always with a friend. When I had seizures I used to continue what I was doing but was unaware of what I was doing. This had the potential to be dangerous which is why it was so important to have someone with me. My parents had the same feelings as you. However when I got to secondary school age, my school was nearly 2 miles away and they didn't drive so they had to let me go with my sister. Maybe waiting until she is a little more settled on the medication so you can assess any potential side affects can buy you a little bit of time and give you the chance as a parent to get your head around it all and not cause your daughter upset? Good luck 🙂