Seizures or Stimming?

                                                            A few weeks ago David and I had an adventure! We had a slumber party at the hospital....just he and I! I have written in my previous posts about the possibility of David having seizures. So, I thought I would take this time to update on where we stand right now. David had been having these "episodes" since probably around 10 months old. They started out where all he did was tremble anywhere from a minutes to ten minutes. It looked like he had the chills for up to 10 minutes....that is the only way I can describe them. Then they slowly increased in severity. David started jerking a little bit more which I chalked up to stimming.
                 For those who don't know what stimming is I will describe it. Stimming is when the child is over stimulated because they are excited or if they feel uncomfortable with something. It is a defense mechanism to comfort themselves from the overstimulation of the world around them. They do physical things or make sounds that comfort them and calm them down. For instance, you may see a child who is on the spectrum walk on their toes, flap their arms, make weird facial expressions etc. When David gets really excited about something or if something scares him or upsets him he will do these things. Stimming can also be things like drooling when the child feels uncomfortable with something. An example of this with David is when he is presented a food that he is uncomfortable with due to its smell, color or texture he will sometimes start drooling or stiffen his arms up and cry. It all has to do with sensory issues. It looks very cute when they are really little but can look very strange as they get older. This is where the differences in your child and other children start to be very noticeable.
                          These episodes started increasing in severity and in frequency. He would start to shake mildly and then start to uncontrollably shake from head to toe. His hands and head would jerk violently. He would stand up the whole time of this episode but I could not get his attention during it. The last two episodes that he had I was not able to get his attention after it was over. He would just stare when I would repeat his name. I had sent a video to his developmental specialist at 10:00 one evening and the next morning she called me and said she wanted him to see his neurologist as quickly as possible. Being that I have epilepsy I had thought that these were seizures but knew that stimming can look very similar depending upon the movements. It scared me when he wasn’t responding at the end of the episode. So, on to the neurologist we went.

More to come..... Yes, I am back to making you wait for the next part of the story! :)