If this causes you (parent) or child to be uncomfortable, please inform the neuroscientist. Your child will be asked to lie or sit still because movement can alter the recording.ĭuring the study, bright flashing lights will be directed to your child in bursts of 10 seconds with a 5 second rest between sets of flashes. The leads are bandaged to prevent accidental removal and artefacts for moving leads. Each electrode is connected to an amplifier and EEG recording machine. Generally about 20 electrodes will be applied to child’s scalp. The EEG neuroscientist will attach small metal discs (electrodes) with thin wires on different locations using adhesive paste. Infants are held by their parent on a chair and can be fed during the process or given a favorite toy to calm or help with distraction. Your child will be asked to lie on a bed or sit in a chair.
Parents stay with the child during the test. This should ideally be trialed once or twice prior to the actual EEG appointment to ensure that it does help settle the child and allow sleep onset. Melatonin is a naturally occurring substance in the body that helps to initiate sleep.
One option to obtain an EEG for such children is to trial a single dose of Melatonin 30-45 minutes prior to the procedure. The EEG service provides no sedation for patients with autism or developmental delay with challenging behaviors. Pictures of what the leads look like attached to the head can be viewed on this website. If some children are sensitive to touching of the scalp, role play and modeling could help prepare the child for the procedure. What if my child has autism or developmental delay and needs an EEG?Ĭhildren with autism or developmental delay suspected of having seizures can have the test. If a sleep deprived EEG is essential, then working out how much sleep deprivation is needed could be trialed on a weekend prior to the test. Your doctor may have requested a sleep deprived EEG, so please attempt the guide discussed above. Please consult with your doctor if your child should stop taking any medications before the test. If there are active head lice, please rebook the appointment once it has been fully treated. Please keep your child’s hair clean and dry on the day. Wash your child’s hair the night before the EEG without applying any hair products. Booking the study during a day nap of the child is helpful. Distraction and comfort from parents is helpful. Younger children can be sensitive to having their head touched and bandaged (to keep the leads in place). The electrodes only pick up the electrical signals that are present and do not affect the child’s brain or cause a seizure. The EEG test is painless and safe, without side effects. It is useful also to exclude unusual movements in the awake and sleep state. The most common reason an EEG is performed is to assist in diagnosing epilepsy. This study is similar to a standard EEG expect that it records for more than 12 hours with the ability to capture sleep EEG features and record and sleep related events suspicious of a seizure. This study requires admission to Norwest Private Hospital and the video EEG recording occurs overnight. This study is reserved for selected individuals with private health insurance coverage (criteria under overnight video-EEG checklist). In that case, it may be possible just to wake your child up earlier than usual on the day of the EEG test. Care should be taken and discussion with your doctor should occur if your sleep deprivation is a trigger for your child’s seizure. Before a sleep-deprived EEG test, school aged children (>5 years) will be asked to stay up as late as possible (3 hours past the normal bedtime) and to wake up at least 2 hours earlier than normal. When patients are sleep deprived, there is a higher chance that abnormal electrical activity (if present) will be detected. This study is normally performed in the awake patient.Ī sleep-deprived EEG test is done when a child has had less sleep than usual, the night before the study (‘sleep deprived’). The appointment is scheduled for 40 minutes although in younger infants this may take slightly longer to set-up.
Usually, a standard EEG test will be done at the clinic room. This test records brain wave patterns and is useful in assisting in the diagnosis of epilepsy (seizure disorders) and excluding mimics of seizures such as sleep and movement disorders. An EEG is a medical test used to measure the electrical activity of the brain.