Hello. Recently my 3 year old cousin has seem to begin having seizures. I happened to catch what appears to be an atonic seizure on camera on Saturday. I informed my mother who then informed his nan (we are stepcousins, my grandad and his nan are partners), and he saw the doctor on Tuesday. We babysat his sister that day, and when we dropped her off, my sister says she saw him have three more drop attacks. She said they were very quick, so she couldn’t tel much of it, she just heard him grown and the beeping of his toy truck’s horn he was playing on, as he hit his head on it, and the one I caught was quick too. I sit up 7-8 seconds after he falls backwards and his eyes are already open. On Saturday, the first time we saw this happen, where I caught it on video, the rest of the day he was very abnormal. We didn’t know at that time he had an episode as I hadn’t noticed it properly, just him falling backwards when we were playing, and seeming upset, but we noticed his behaviour; he was “naughty”. After I noticed what happened in the video I took of him playing (he stops mid sentence, his eyes close, his face droops, and he falls backwards), we thought maybe thag would be why. Tuesday, after when my sister says he had more episodes, he again was very “naughty”, almost “bratty”. He’s a speech delayed toddler, likely autistic, as his dad and uncle both are. He can act out when overwhelmed, he gets very angry when people get near him when he hasn’t asked, and he was particularly like this on Tuesday but far, far worse. I don’t want to describe him as “bratty” as I know he’s not acting this way to act this way. He’s seeing a neurologist on Saturday, which is super quick and lucky for him, I’d hate for him to have to wait any longer than necessary. My mum has told me my grandad has said he’s had absence seizure-esque episodes, where it’s like he’s gone super briefly, but he’s been withdrawn and confused especially, which makes sense. I know absence seizures typically don’t have a postictal state, which is what we think his bad behaviour is after his drop attacks, but they can be confusing, and he doesn’t know what’s happening and he can’t communicate it either, as a toddler, but also one who is speech delayed so even if he knew what he was feeling and what to say, it would be hard for him too. I’ve began thinking perhaps he doesn’t have autism but instead one of various neurological disorders, because I’ve researched and seen that many that begin 2-5, and are more common in boys also, can cause developmental delays, and sometimes begin with atonic seizures first. He’s incredibly intelligent, so the intellectual disabilities seen in those disorders don’t relate to him. Or he could have an epileptic disorder and just have it comorbid with autism. But we’re also concerned about what’s caused it. He doesn’t have a particularly great home life, his parents and split and his mother is unfit, and is a known drug addict and alcoholic. He often has been said to have hit his head when at his mum’s, but also god knows if someone is hurting him, because his mother doesn’t exactly associate with the best people. His dad also is very worried he’s caused or worsened a head injury after he accidentally hit him with a door, and his mother says he hurt himself quite badly on the head at a playground a few days prior, but was fine afterwards. We also don’t know if she perhaps was taking any drugs during pregnancy, there’s concerns that perhaps she was during her second pregnancy, my cousin is 3 years old and his younger sister is a year and 10 days younger, so 2, and after her birth was when things got very bad with their mother and the custody and everything. But god knows if she took anything during her pregnancy with the 3 year old, and he has a drug related developmental delay that could be causing seizures

I just kinda wanted to share this, and this is a good place too. I mean this is a group dedicated to discussing epilepsy and seizures, so perhaps people may have some supportive words and advice

I would like to mention his nan is a paramedic, and I am first aid qualified and know how to handle seizures due to my own interest in the topic as well, he hasn’t had any tonic clonic appearing episodes at all, just atonics and apparently absences. He’s staying with my grandad and his nan (again, our grandparents our partners) and they’re watching him to take the pressure of his father