Infantile Spasms: How Seizure Disorder Progresses in Children

Seizure disorders can develop at any age but we typically do not associate epilepsy and other seizure disorders with a complication in infancy. For some children, a seizure diagnosis does not come until later in life but, in infancy, may be identified as infantile spasms. If your child is at risk for a seizure disorder, it is important to become familiar with infantile spasms and what this diagnosis may mean for your child's long term health.

Infantile spasms are a unique health risk that affect children in the first six months of life and can be challenging to treat until the condition is confirmed as related to a seizure disorder. West syndrome, in most cases, the cause for infantile spasms in an infant and can be related to a genetic disorder or injury in the first six months of life. Just like the need for testing of scleroderma endoscopy in older adults, this type of disorder must be diagnosed appropriately from a neurological as well as a muscular condition.

A child who demonstrates complications involving infantile spasms will typically need diagnosis within the first six months of life by use of testing. Using pediatric EEG testing, a child's brain can be monitored when the spasms occur. For most children, because the infantile spasms occur immediately after feeding, or upon waking, the testing may be prolonged and take an entire day for doctors to determine if a seizure disorder is present.

Once confirmed as suffering from infantile spasms, if a lesion is present, your child's physician may recommend surgery to remove the lesion. In most cases, however, children respond well to lifelong treatment involving steroids and neuroepileptic medications. Because infantile spasms are related to a common seizure disorder, you can expect that your child will need this treatment for life.

Infantile seizures are complex health conditions that are often the pre-cursor to a seizure disorder in a child. For many children, the diagnosis may transform in to a West syndrome condition for which long term health treatment is needed. When your child shows signs of spasms in the first six months of life, be sure to seek out medical treatment immediately.

Sources: Partial Seizure Disorders, by Mitzi Waltz