Infant vertigo or seizures?

[KGans]

My 7 month old has had, since birth, odd "spells". It is always associated with movement - laying her down, picking her up mostly. When you lay her down, she "freezes" for about 2-3 seconds, and her eyes get unfocused. These spells happen for several days in a row, then vanish for weeks. The last time she had them was early March. Now, in May, she started them again, but the next day she added something strange. Instead of just the freezing, grimacing and unfocused stare, she also started snapping her head to the left when laid down. She has always had a strong leftward preference to her head, to the extent that strangers have commented on it. She does not have toncillis (sp?).  When pulling her to a sitting position, her head would sometimes loll forward. This uptick in severity sent me to the ER at Dupont with her. An EEG showed no signs of seizure activity (she did do it during the EEG), and the neuro said it did not look epilleptic in nature, and was likely benign. We are doing a follow up 24 hour EEG next week. I am wondering, though, if it could be related to an inner ear problem, such as vertigo? The fact that it is always associated with positional changes made me wonder. And if it is not vertigo, and not seizures, what else could it be? Would an EEG show a brain tumor? Thanks for any input!

See this thread for further updates and another woman whose child has very similar symptoms: http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Neurology/Infant-vertigo/show/1250695

[Christopher R Newey, DO]

Thanks for using the forum. I am happy to address your questions, and my answer will be based on the information you provided here. Please make sure you recognize that this forum is for educational purposes only, and it does not substitute for a formal office visit with a doctor.

Without the ability to examine and obtain a history, I can not tell go into much detail about your child’s symptoms. However I will try to provide you with some useful information.

If your child has eye movement abnormalities, dizziness, along with the symptoms occurring with different positions, he/she may have an inner problem, such as benign positional vertigo. This would be best determined by an ear nose throat specialist. It would also be important to make sure your child does not have an inner ear infection.

It does not sound like the symptoms are epileptic in nature. A 24 hour EEG would be very helpful. It is reassuring that an episode was seen on the routine (i.e., shorter) EEG and was determined to be nonepileptic. EEGs may show changes if a tumor were present. However, an inner ear tumor, e.g., a schwanoma), likely would not be seen.

Children can have odd behaviors as they age, which can be normal. I would discuss your child’s condition further with his/her pediatrician. It would be important to address your child’s development (e.g., social, behavioral, and motor skills) to ensure he/she is on track.

Thank you for this opportunity to answer your questions, I hope you find the information I have provided useful, good luck.

[hanahana]

In continuing to search for answers I ran across this post.  Myself (hanahana) and KGans have been writing back and forth about our babies who seem to have extremely similar symptoms.  In some ways it is almost like describing the same baby.  I would like to post a link to the forum we have been having discussions back and forth through in hopes that Dr. Newey would mind reading over it.  It seems not many doctors give much credibility to infant vertigo.  But, I think it should be looked into further. I truly believe our babies are "suffering" from it.

Here is the link: http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Neurology/Infant-vertigo/show/1250695

Thank you so much for your opinion.