[marykath]

A long story...
Our daughter, now 4, had her first EEG in July. The neuro thought it showed some abnormalities that were consistant with shaken baby syndrome, but couldn't tell exactly. He recommended another EEG.
While the first EEG went smoothly, the second one didn't. It was in the dr.'s office, not the hospital, and she cried and wailed and thrashed and the wires came off her head. The tech told my husband to sit on her to hold her down. And now it turns out we will probably have to do another EEG. Can't wait!
Meanwhile, we have an appt. for an MRI next week, for which she will be sedated. Sure, it's scary for us, but better for her as she won't be so scared during the procress.
My husband doesn't want to put her through the trauma of yet another EEG, especially since we will have the MRI.
Some history: Our daugther has had emotional difficulties and developmental delays and we are on several waiting lists to be tested for sensory processing disorder.
Do we really need another EEG? What can an EEG tell you that an MRI can't? Should we just ask the doctor to assume that whatever he saw the first time is correct and go from there?
What good will all these tests do, anyway? Her issues have greatly improved lately, with the help of a child psychologist, a very structured private preschool (we had an IEP and she didn't qualify for Head Start, or any other services) and some tough rules at home.
What would a diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome help? We would still go on being good parents and trying the best we can.
I know many of you have more severe medical concerns, but I just want all these appointments to be over for her.
Should we do the next EEG? If so, are there any modifications we should ask for? I know our doc doesn't want kids to be sedated for these, but I have read that sometimes they wrap a baby's head in bandages so the wires won't come off.
Experience? Advice?

[EZ2Luv]

I can ony tell you what I would do. First I am so sorry your litte one is having to go through any of this. My suggestion is to wait to see what the MRI results are. MRIs can detect alot if the MRI turns out fine you may not even need another EEG.

An EEG in a doctors office I imagine is alot different than in a hospital or a place where EEGs are done all the time and I am sure there are ways to make them alot lest stressful and you are correct in that EEGs are not done under sedation.
I know that at Childrens Hospital in Boston they do wrap the heads to keep the wires in place. Lets hoie that there is no need for another EEG.

EZ

[krafmatic]

Is it possible to do both sedated, one right after another? One of my little guys had this done in August and the other one is scheduled for both of these in October. This is how our morning goes:

8:30-9:30 am -- sedation with oral meds
9:30 am -- MRI
10:00 -- EEG, we wake them up near the end of it. They wrap his head with gauze (or something similar) to help keep the wires in place, but he instinctively wanted to take them off so we had to distract him and hold his hands down for a bit. He was pretty funny coming off the drugs but still didn't care for being restrained...thankfully we didn't have to do it for long.

11:10am -- meet with the pediatric neurologist. We are lucky in that all of the tests and the Dr office are in the same building and the radioneurologist is able to discuss the MRI results with our ped.neuro before our appointment with her.

By far the worst part of sedation was restricting their movement until the drugs wore off...I was following him around as he kept trying to walk/crawl and would repeatedly fall. God knows he doesn't need any more damage to his head.

Good luck