Infant vertigo?

[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!

[MonicaPublicProfile]

Hello,

I have a 3.5 month old nephew whose eyes flutter rapidly for about 5 seconds when put in a horizontal position.  It doesn't happen all of the time, however it is pretty worrisome when one witnesses it.  It appears to be seizure-like, however, the two different pediatric neurologists that have seen him don't think it is seizures. He already underwent a 24-hour EEG and it came back fine. Also, the MRI came back clear as well. We are all so worried. My nephew had an appointment with the pediatric ophthalmologist today and the doctor said that it is not nystagmus and that his eyes are normal.  Have any of you experienced this with your baby?  If so, please share any treatments that your baby had. I would also like to know when and if it stopped.  Any information or direction you can provide will be greatly appreciated. I look forward to your response.

Many thanks!

[Bellahernandez]

My baby has the same symptoms im so worried please call me at 956-434-1920  im from south texas my name is bella hernandez my baby is 3 months old.

[hanahana]

Sounds the same as our story! I am so thankful for you.  Enjoy your daughter.... Time sure does fly!

[crinkle15]

Thanks for checking in. My little girl is almost a year now and is also a very happy, thriving little one, praise God. We have not seen an episode since she was about 4/5 months old.

Last week we had a follow up appointment with genetics and they said that she was "perfect" and they discharged her. We have one more follow up with neurology in Sept. but I expect the same results as genetics.

Thanks again for these posts and all the support and hope it brought to us.

Blessings to you and your family.

[hanahana]

Hello Everyone!
My life has been BUSY this summer and I haven't had a lot of time to check in with everyone. I have thought about all of your babies many times and wondered how everyone was doing.  I do not have the time to e-mail everyone induvidually, so if you have the time, would you mind posting some updates on any new test results, symptoms, recoveries, etc. Or if you would rather do so privately, feel free to send me a private message through medhelp.com.  I am hoping to hear that maybe some of your children have grown out of this "infant vertigo" just as my daughter did.  She is 16 months old and is so healthy and thriving.  Please let me know how things are going.  I would love to hear some good news!

Take care!
Hanahana

[KGans]

That sounds more like what we experienced. I will stress though that if he does have ANY stillness AFTER the eye-fluttering, you must push your doctor to see a neurologist.

The strange sound may just be from his cold, as the doctors think, if it just started recently.

Yes, it is very scary to see these episodes, even when all the doctors tell you there is nothing seriously wrong. All of our children's episodes were intermittent - they would happen frequently for about 4-5 days, then suddenly stop for about a month, then start again for another 4-5 days. See if they stop in the next few days. If they do, then see if they begin again in 3 weeks to a month or so.

Also, all of our children started these episodes in the first few weeks of their life - yours is a late starter. It could be from the illness, if he has fluid in his ears. The fluid could make him dizzy (vertigo) when he changes position. See if the episodes stop when his cold passes.

Hopefully your doctors are correct and it is the cold causing his symptoms!

Keep us posted!