ADOS was today . . . psychologist recommended EEG?

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So, we took DS for his ADOS today. In general, he did better on the ‘pretend play’ parts than I expected. But new toys and no Lego around, so . . . he was accommodating. Although, he did keep refusing to do things like feed the doll, etc. and kept pointing to the psychologist to do it instead.
What was eye opening for me were that some of his weaknesses were more pronounced than I expected, since I was not able to ‘prompt’ him or ‘support’ him. That was kind of hard to see. Very unresponsive to his name or to questions asked—and I realized how much support we give him. Doc said she’ll review everything and give us the final report in a week, but does think that occupational therapy and speech therapy are recommended. The journey begins . . .

So, ANYWAY, my big question is—the psychologist recommended us doing an EEG—and they want to monitor him awake AND then put him to sleep and monitor. The reason is because of his ‘zoning’ out tendency and because I said he switches his answers quite often or says he said something when he didn’t. She wants to ‘rule out’ absence seizures. It really makes me nervous putting a 4 ½ year old under. I did some googling and searching on this site, of course. But any of you have experience with this?
I do have two cousins with seizure history, so it’s not unrealistic, but . . . is it worth it? Necessary? Guess only the doctor or I can answer that, but would love to hear from anyone who has been through this or who got a better answer than I did from their doctor.

for EEGS, they don't generally anesthetize. they have you stay up late the night before so you can fall asleep during the test and they can analyze the sleep part. anesthetics are brain depressants and could dampen down the very seizure activity they're looking for.

EEGs are very safe and non-invasive. main problems are having to lie still and having goop in your hair after the test.

It's amazing what you can learn about your own kid when you watch these tests: if they test his speech, watch that one, too (I didn't find the OT eval to be particularly enlightening, but then we were just under the border of qualifying for services.)

Wish I could answer your question - except that I had EEGs done as a kid for migraines, with no ill result. I don't remember anesthesia for mine, though (but they weren't testing for seizures.)

Here is an EEG social story that might be helpful for both of you. ~Erica

http://www.oneplaceforspecialneeds.com/ ... _test.html

You're right! That was super helpful. Wow,
I still don't know why they would have to put him to sleep . . . but I guess it is supposed to be an anesthetic that doesn't interfere with brain activity. Well, anyway, they will do an 'awake' reading and then an 'asleep' one.
My son, having pretty intense sensory issues regarding his head and regarding smell--well, I don't think he's going to even make it through the putting on of the electrodes. Definitely something to consider. He barely lets us wash his hair. And, bring anything near him that smells that bad (as described in the story) and he is going to be pretty close to meltdown mode. Yikes. I wonder if we should put this off until he has some therapy to work through more of the sensory stuff. Doesn't sound like the psychologist thinks it is super urgent. Hmmmm . . . .

My son did this when he was younger. We did a sleep deprivation one first (they found abnormalities in the frontal lobe) so they scheduled a 24 hr. EEG and MRI in the hospital. It was really not that tramatic. I think the worst part was the tech. trying to put electrodes with sticky stuff on them on my son's head. (sensory problems! you can imagine...!) Basically the worst part is sitting around in the same room for so long. They don't give them any kind of drugs or put him under. They want to see how everything is working in his normal state.