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Child Behavior (Expert Forum)
3 yr old suddenly has head pain and potential fluid in brain
Answered by
Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D. - Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy, Family Therapy, Crisis Intervention
Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates
This forum is for questions and support regarding child behavior issues such: Child Discipline (behavior management), Normal Child Development, Parent-Child Communications, Social Development
3 yr old suddenly has head pain and potential fluid in brain
by ted99, Jun 10, 2004 12:00AM
My 3 yr old son was born in Russia, a difficult birth and Russian doctors said he had hypertension of the brain that they wished to treat medically upon birth. I did research on the web and consulted some US doctors over the phone. We also saw a western doctor in Moscow who said it was nothing and confirmed that about 90% of the children born in Russia also receive this diagnosis. US and West tend not to treat it while Russians treat it - just a different medical philosophy. We decided not to medicate and relaxed a bit, keeping a close eye on him, all seemed fine. Recently he started to complain about head pain and gets tired and listless for awhile before picking back up to his normal self. His normal self is usually just that, but he does get very panicky on occasion which doesn't seem right - for example sometimes he won't let you dress him and he "freaks out", excuse the bad choice of wording. He won't let a doctor even examine him. We want to do a EEG and MRI but he absolutely will not cooperate and throws a tantrum in the doctor's office. We even suggested the idea of sedating him but doctors say that will not show accurate results of the tests on the brain. We are now very nervous and second guessing ourselves horribly, especially myself as my Russian wife wanted to follow the advice of the Russian doctors (naturally). I of course wanted to limit putting what I felt were potentially unnecessary heavy drugs into our newborn. I need advice badly...
Doctor's Answer
by Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D., Jun 11, 2004 12:00AM
, Jun 11, 2004 12:00AM
While an EEG might be influenced by sedation, though not entirely so, it should not interfere with MRI (which is imaging the structure of the brain). Ask about this. Hopefully you are in touch with a Pediatric Neurologist who can guide you in the right direction. The panicky reaction is not as much of a cencern as the pattern of experiencing headache and then becoming listless. This has more implication for possible organic brain problem or seizure activity than does the panicky reaction, so invites aggressive follow-up.
Member Comments (2)
by ted99, Jun 10, 2004 12:00AM
This is Ted99 again - just wanted to add that at 8mths my son did have a a picture of the brain taken, not sure if it's mri or eeg but it shows the two sides of the brain which were not apparently symmetrical. Russians Dr's said it's wasn't good. Also when he was a newborn he did have slight trouble moving his limbs, they would shake a bit sometimes when he moved them. but he was a large baby so most Western doctors we talked to said it was more likely him just getting used to moving his body around. Russians said it confirmed some issue existed with the brain and central nervous system.
