Epilepsy medication for child

[Fasoulitsa]

Hello,

I have a daughter 4.5 yrs old and she has had 3 incidents, two tonic clonic lasting more than 5 mins in Sep '18 and May '20 and a partial focal in March '19. She had an EEG and MRI in '18. EEG showed epileptic activity, whilst the MRI was clear.

Recently, the NHS doctors recommended 20mg Keppra (10mg x 2 times a day). We are wondering if someone with similar experience, can give us some insights as to:

i) What to expect with respect to side-effects. Will they have an impact on their behaviour and relations with other children? (she will be going to school soon)

ii) If a similar situation (e.g. 1 incident per year) can be managed without medication

Many thanks

Sofia

[c-mac]

Everyone is different, but for our 9-year-old it caused her to miss a lot of school due to mood swings and extreme sleepiness. We switched to oxcarbazepine and she got much better, stopped having seizures. Our new epileptologist says she doesn't recommend keppra for those reasons.

[c-mac in reply to c-mac]

But the seizures could have been because we weren't taking enough. Also prescription vitamin b helped a lot with the mood swings.