Parenting a child who is suffering from epilepsy will be very challenging for the parents, but if appropriate medical care and lifestyle modifications are done, you will be able to provide your child with a healthy and satisfying life. Knowledge about the condition, establishment of the support group and similarity with how the daily routines can be modified will be a very significant step towards management of epilepsy in kids.
Epilepsy is basically a neurological disorder that is based upon involving repeated behaviour that will be arriving from abrupt and uncontrollable electrical impulses in the brain. This is a very common neurological problem among children, but the intensity and presentation could be variable. In some gets, it will appear in the form of short spells or twitching of the muscles, and on the other hand, some of them will have longer episodes. Learning about the participating factors, symptoms, and type of episode is important for you because this will be the very first step towards paediatric condition management. Consistently remaining in touch with the doctors at the baby care clinic in Vijayawada will be recommended for you, and some of the common aetiologies of epilepsy in kids are:
- Any kind of infection or injury related to the brain during pregnancy or very early childhood
- Genetic factors
- Abnormality in the structure of the brain
- Any kind of idiopathic or unknown reasons
If the kids are diagnosed with epilepsy, then it will be very important for you to collaborate closely with the paediatric neurologist so that you can create a custom plan of treatment very easily. The following are some of the basic details you need to know about the medical care for such episodes:
- Diagnosis and testing: Correct diagnosis is the key to proper paediatric management of epilepsy, and the diagnostic testing, including the EEG, CT scan and MRI, will determine the exact reason for epilepsy without any doubt in addition to its causes. The neurologist in this particular case will be interpreting the results to prescribe the most suitable course of treatment and action.
- Medication: In the cases of treatment of epilepsy, another option is to shift the focus to medications, and all of these medicines will be about controlling the episodes of repetitive behaviour and kids suffering from epilepsy. Getting the right drugs and dosage in some of the situations will take time, but depending on the age, intensity and general health, you need to be very clear about basic management of the things. Regular health checkups with your physician will be required in such cases to track the effectiveness of the medication and change the dosage whenever required.
- Advanced level treatment: For the children who are poorly controlled with medication or therapy, or any other kind of related issues, advanced level treatment has to be given with the help of doctors at best paediatric Hospital in Vijayawada. Providing the kids with the VNS, ketogenic diet or surgery in some of the cases will be recommended in such cases and the neurologist will determine if all of these approaches are appropriate, depending on the individual needs or not.
- Emergency care: In such cases always have to be ready to manage the emergencies because discussing the medication plan with your paediatrician is important so that you can understand the administration. Any episode of behaviour that is lasting for more than five minutes or there are clusters of episodes will always require immediate medical attention.
Some of the most common and successful lifestyle pieces of advice for epilepsy management are:
- Establishment of the regular sleeping pattern: Sleep deprivation is one of the frequent problems of epilepsy episodes in kids, and further, you need to make sure that your child is having proper and regular sleep every night. Establishing a bedtime routine and making sure that they are consistently relaxing with the development of healthy sleeping habits is important to avoid any kind of problem.
- Encouraging the balance diet: Healthy diet will be highly successful in promoting the general brain health and in some of the cases the ketogenic diet which is high fat, low carbohydrate diet and other associated things will be very much important to control the epilepsy. Consulting the medical professionals in such cases will be very much important so that you can find out which diet will be suitable for your kids.
- Controlling the stress levels: Stress is another very important factor associated with the episodes of epilepsy which is the main reason that you should teach your kids to engage in the relaxation skills very easily so that deep breathing and mindfulness will be there and eventually you will be able to enjoy peaceful and supportive home environment without any problem.
- Watching out physical activities: Exercising on regular basis will be very much important for kids with epilepsy and for this you need to indulge into the safe activities and monitor these things properly to avoid any kind of problem. Avoiding the activities that include very high injury risk including the swimming and rock climbing without precaution will be recommended for you.
- Restricting the screen time: For the certain element of kids, flashing lights or extended screen time will be leading to epilepsy episodes which is the main reason that establishing the limit over the screen time of your kids is important so that you can promote other activities including the creative playing and reading very easily.
- Developing the appropriate plan of action: Collaborating with the doctors in such cases to create the custom plan of response is important for you because this particular aspect will be all about dealing with the details of the triggers very easily, and further, the emergency contact will be very well sorted out. Distributing this plan to the caregivers, teachers, and everyone involved in the care of the kids is important to avoid any kind of hassle during emergencies.
Hence, there is no need to worry because epilepsy in children is a very manageable condition that will be based upon advancements of medical research, and makes it very much possible for the families to experience better outcomes. Proper control of epilepsy with lifestyle modifications will always be successful in providing you with vibrant and active lives, and you will not be alone in this process because if you will be remaining educated and create a solid support system, then you will definitely be able to carry out the things very well. Additionally, getting in touch with the doctors at center for paediatric gastroenterlogy will be important for you so that you can provide the appropriate care and support to the kids, which will help them to succeed.