The effects of Tegretol to my daughter

It was on Tuesday Feb. 16 when Ella started her medication, she is taking 1 tablet twice a day, it was on Thursday when I noticed something, she sleeps more than she used to do, every time she came from school she looks tired and go straight to bed to sleep. Today is Saturday, she slept for 4 hours, I know and understand it is the effect of Tegretol since Dra. Fojas explained it to me, but I feel sad for my daughter all she does is sleep and also not to forget she's a bit irritable. After a week the dose will be 1 1/2 tablets twice a day, how can she go to school feeling sleepy and dizzy? Now, I understand what Dra. told me, she said,,, if you ever decide to stop the medication pls. let me know... This is a matter of choice ha its either sacrifice the school to make her better, or stop tegretol enable her to learn more from school..... which should be it?

Epilepsy and Autism

Its been a while since I visit my blog,, maybe because there is nothing to write and also everything about my daughter is the same,,, everything is good and she's doing great. Last year, Nov. 7 to be exact my husband found our Michaella lying on the floor wiggling, her eyes looking upwards, the body is very stiff and her lip color was blue,,, Ella! Ella! but no response. God! we panicked we had no idea what was happening. We took her to a hospital, as soon as we arrived she was already concious and as if nothing happen and the first thing she asked was her slippers and wanted to go home. She was confined for 2 days, after that she had an EEG and the result was normal, the Nuerologist told us we wait for the 2nd attack that is beacause epilepsy could attack once a year or once in 5 yrs. so we should start the medication if the attack should ever happen again.
Last thursday, Feb. 12 she had her 2nd attack, she was in school. Now, she is on medication she's taking Tegretol 200 mg twice daily for 1 week, 1 1/2 tablets twice daily for the follwing weeks then another check up to see if she's doing ok with the meds and she will take Tegretol for 2 years hopefully this will cure her epilepsy. This is so frustrating, as I have said on my past posts she improves beyond my expectations. Epilepsy, a new chapter of my life.
Dra. Fojas of Makati Medical Center a Pediatric Neurologist expalined, epilepsy and autism as I have remembered is like a partner, I really thought it only occur on little ones but she said it also occur on early teens and early adulthood especially with autistics. The good news about it, is, it can be cured! Hopefully Tegretol can take this away.

Coping with the Diagnosis

This post is for parents, parents, who, until now is in denial of their childs condition. I can relate to this, I've been there, and God knows how much I was hurt, (and still hurting) how my heart, my whole being suffered for my daughter, but I tell you, give yourself some time, its hard, yes I know, but one day you'll see and realized life is not over. Accepting your child and the condition will ease the pain, it took me 6 months to finally learn, tears, pity, hatred are not the answer and will never help my daughter. Let me share how I conquered Autism. On January 03, 1998, my daughter was 27 months old, the day she was diagnosed having autism, on this date and 6 months after was the darkest time of my life, one night I found myself playing with her like we used to do, and I saw my daughter, my princess, she's still my Michaella which I thought I have lost because of autism. We didnt lost our children, maybe they are different from other children but what they need is the same with the so called normal kids all we need to do is to love them more, try to be in thier said "world" and be patient as we can with them. In one seminar the speaker said... WE ARE SPECIAL IN GOD'S EYES THATS WHY WE HAVE SPECIAL KIDS.

Talking to Autistic Child

Since communication is one of the main problems of Autism, parents, guardians and nanies should learn a strategy or style on how to talk to them. Use simple words like sit, come, eat, walk and also some gestures to help the child understand. Facial expression and intonation can also be used to clarify meaning.


With my daughter, I always use the word "look" for the eye contact. If your child does not respond with it, hold the childs face on his both cheeck facing him and say "look", once she did look at you even for just a second, say "good looking". Start with the childs name, look and whatever the command is, example... ella, look, command. Pointing at the object can also help her understand what the command is, with my daughter I "introduce" things to her, I always ask her "what is this?" if she does not respond then I tell her what the thing is called. Then I ask again until she understand and remember.


To a non-verbal child it is not easy or even impossible to explain why things are like this or like that, but this does not mean if your child is verbal it will be different, maybe easier in some point. Since my daughter is considered non-verbal (although she is trying to express herself on her own way) we, always make a point to talk to her and explain why we cannot buy certain things she wanted, in shortest sentence we can possibly do...

examples:

asking for things for boys or men... "for kuya not for ella"
"for daddy not for ella"

asking for very expensive toy.... "no money"

asking to go to a mall..... I schedule when we are going. then I ask her "ok?" but if you promised you will go on that date just make sure you will.

asking for junk food.... eat rice and chicken then chips

The key to this is be creative, and learn how to cope with your child, your child is not the one who will adjust for you, you and your family should understand his moves, his weakness, his tantrums. He will not tell you what he wants so we as parents should know even without the words.

Babbling Autisic Child

Babbling (also called twaddling) is a stage in child language acquisition, during which an infant appears to be experimenting with uttering sounds of language, but not yet producing any recognizable words. Babbling begins at approximately 5 to 7 months of age, when a baby's noises begin to sound like phonemes. Infants begin to produce recognizable words usually around 12 months, though babbling may continue for some time afterward.

Seminars are offered to parents to help us how to deal with autism. Problems that occur one after the other. One those is the communication, communicating with an autistic child is very hard since most of them are non-verbal. If your child starts to babble, you should always pay attention to the words or sounds they emit, example if the child says " dada" then take him to his daddy, do the same with "mama". If the child is saying "bol, bol" then show a ball. Be creative always find a thing with his "words"

Echolalia on Autism (echolalic)

Speech delay... the most common sign of Autism. Although some children are speaking before they reach the age of 18 months, eventually it will disappear. My daughter was starting to talk at the age of 1, but then it was all gone by the age of 18 months, everything she learned disappear.

This post is about how to teach a child to communicate, its not easy but with patience and love everything is possible... children with or without autism start to talk by babbling... with autism it can be very hard for the child since they dont know how to imitate, but when they learn to imitate they tend to display another problem being an echolalic. Echolalia - is like this, the child is talking but only repeats all the words she/he hear, example.. if they are ask "how are you?" she/he will reply with the same question. This can be corrected... you will need somebody to whisper in her ear, when you talk to the child make sure someone is there to tell her the right words to reply, example.. if you ask the child "what is your name?" then the 3rd person should whisper the name of the child to the child. This should be done everytime you are speaking to the him/her, that means 24/7. Until she/he gets the point.