Sandifer's Syndrome Diagnosis

We were finished hearing that Noah no longer had Infantile Spasms (at this point cause they could come back and we pray daily they do not). Then we showed his neurologist the newest episode video and she said "Those are not spasms or seizures...he has Sandifer's Syndrome."

Sandifer's syndrome is a form of acid reflux disease that happens to infants and toddlers.  My short explanation is that when a baby has such bad acid, reflux, and heartburn their little bodies cannot handle the pain so their bodies will do all sorts of crazy movements.  There are many YouTube videos that show a way better account of this then the one I took so I didn't post it. 

This is kind of music to our ears in a way.  Don't get me wrong, it is another horrible diagnosis with multiple medications to treat it and sounds like it will be a very long treatment plan (zantac, prevacid, mylanta).  However, to us it meant that Noah no longer was getting his brain hammered and damaged.  It meant that many of the harmful episodes he was having were actually Sandifer's episodes so his brain might not be as bad off as we originally were thinking.  It also means that the two original seizures we thought he had in his first month of life might have also been Sandifer's episodes.  The one seizure he had in the hospital was totally different than all of the episodes he has ever had and that one was witnessed by nurses and deemed an actual seizure. 

He will eventually outgrow this diagnosis and no matter how many episodes he has none of the Sandifer's ones are harming his brain anymore.  This is a win in our books.

Here is the online support group I belong to, to help me cope with this diagnosis.  www.InfantRefluxDisease.com

He is starting to feel SO much better these days as well. 

His cheeks are all puffy from the steroids....they are so cute too :)