My x husband has uncontrolled eplipsy, our daughter has an idea of what happens to her dad. But has never really seen him have a series of seizuers, most people don't realize he's seizing when he has them. But over the weekend he aws admitted to the ER.

My question is should I tell her??? And if so should I tell her how serious his eplipsy is???

She 7, he had eplipsy since before she was born.

Why not tell her?

My child has a classmate that has seizures. The classmate has not had any at school but the teacher had someone come in and explain it to the classroom. There is less stigma for the affected child that way and the other children won't be as shocked when one happens.

Your child is old enough to understand the basics of it.

Ooops.

My only real issue is his eplipsy is uncontrolled and it will kill him, he suffers from short term memory loss, he blacks out, and is unresponsive. Tell her his sick is one thing, do I tell her how bad it really is ???

He been on 7 major meds in 3 years and up too 4 at a time.

That is a tough one.

Personally, I would say something in simple terms. It's better than a shock later, to me.

He's not in the hospital dying right now, is he? If not, you don't even have to go there.

Just the basics. Daddy has a sickness... She'll ask the questions that she needs to know. Right?

That's just me.

thanks, i think your right

Good luck.

Only you know the time and place and what to tell your children. That said it is not likely that other people are going to respect that right so you probably want to tell them the basics.

I told my children from the time they were young, 6, that I had a serious medical condition that could mean that I would be very very sick, or at least very tired, and different from some of the other kids parents.

I told them that some people thought I could die from it but only God knew for sure when. When they are little they can't grasp the concept of death. They may shake their head that they do but the concept is just to abstract for them Helen Kubler Ross has an excellent book on death and Dying for Kid. That I would do every reasonable thing to prevent that from happening but if they did it wouldn't be all that different than their life every day. Even at the hospital they had a bedtime and the same rules. My biggest hassle was the people that wanted to excuse them or give them something "normal" kids didn't get. You start that you will be making excuses for them the rest of their lives.

That maybe I would have to go to doctors and hospitals without them and that while I missed them very much I was was there Mom first and my heart was with them always. And I worked so that they had letters, toys, calls, ect daily. Maybe not myself but people I told what to do. That as their Mom I had taken care of their needs. I added age approriate examples as I went along.

That I would tell them the truth. If it hurt or I was scared I might fall asleep, shake, sweat, throw up, or cry but that was a good sign because I could still feel my boo boos and sometimes my body was doing exactly what it needed to do.

I told them that various conditions are just part of life for some people. But we learn something from all parts of life easy and hard.

I brought them in to see my equipment and what I did during the time we were seperated. When safe I let them handle as much of it as possible. It took some wrangeling then because we were in the stone ages then when patients were treated, not families, but the kids really were pretty relaxed about it. Soon, and often, they were little ambassadors for the adults that had a lot harder time with it.

I did insist that my kids see that I had a healthcare TEAM that wasn't just doctors and nurses; that I was the coach, but it involved a lot of other peoples time that I couldn't always control.

I introduced them to other people with similiar health issues, mine is very rare, and really waited for their questions which were more often about where was the potty, the pop machine, and which buttons they could push. It all became as routine as the toaster to them.

They eventually had so many friends that had parents with similiar symptons that they really thought all parents went to the hospital ect..

I would contact the National Epilesy society for kid level information. They have a lot from coloring books to videos to even kids camps.

For what is worth many people who have the symptoms you are describing do get controlled and do fine. The Musella Foundation and the National Head Injury Foundation are a couple of other sites you would want to access.

Hopefully this helps.