Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Why I love the medication!! (and what I don't like...)

Faith has been on her meds for a week now.

I, as a parent, first wondered if we were making the right choice...then Faith became a regularly routined child...Now I know we definitely made the right decision!!

Before medication, Faith was not sleeping well. She cat napped throughout the days, some days with no naps at all, then she would crash early and wake up during the night.

It was tiring for us, and her. Apparently poor sleep habits are a sign of epilepsy as well. The brain doesn't know when to shut down, or turn on...the activity that goes on in there is all haywire.

After Faiths morning dose, she flies and runs wild, this happens until around lunchtime. After lunch, generally around 1pm, she crashes and yesterday her nap was 3 hrs!!! 3 HOURS!! I couldn't get over that.

Then she gets her evening dose at 8pm and we let her run for about an hour and then we start to get her to sleep. It takes a bit of holding and snuggling, and telling her it is bedtime, but she seems to be asleep usually by 10pm and in her bed.

She doesn't wake at all until 8 or so in the morning!!

This is what I have been trying to do with her since coming home and she has never been able to fall into this pattern. I am so thankful that we have found something that helps regulate her seizures and her sleeping!!

What I don't like about it is that it still is having the opposite effect on her. She is not sedated right away, which is nice, but she seems to become so much more active, and if we don't let her run around, she is aggressive and mean to everyone. She had those behaviours before the meds, they just seem to make them bigger...hmm. We think we will wait and see if her brain and body adjust to the changes with the meds before we look into something else.

Oh, and on another note...Faith was weighed yesterday and she is up again...just over a pound gain in 2 weeks. We are just ecstatic. I am going to take a picture of her chart next time so I can post it here and you can all see where she has come from. She is in the WHITE AREA!!! I didn't even see which percentile, but I almost think it was the 5th, or very close...

I still think it has to do with the removal of dairy. Not 100% sure, but that is my guess, since she wasn't really gaining on the pediasure...

Have a great day!!

2 comments:

  1. yeah for the weight gain. my kids were all in the 5th percentile. ;-) way to go Faith!!

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  2. Oh, Pediasure! Have you seen how much sugar that contains!?! Our normally calm child went ballistic when she needed to take Pediasure for a broken jaw. We replaced it with healthy, high calorie smoothies, and she calmed down and did not lose weight despite being on a liquid diet for many weeks.

    On the other hand, I know the agony of a failure to thrive child as well.

    Parenting is such an unending stream of difficult decisions!

    God bless you,

    Annie Kate

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