Any parent who has a child with epilepsy will know the continual worry over when and how they’ll have their next seizure, particularly when they’re in bed asleep. It’s impossible to monitor your child 24/7 and countless parents report years of sleepless nights, getting out of bed to check on their child after the slightest noise, only to find they’ve just rolled over in their sleep.
One way to help prevent the continual worry of nocturnal seizures is a bed movement alarm. It’s the perfect solution for detecting tonic clonic seizures during the night and can help give any parent peace of mind and hopefully a good night’s rest. It fits under the mattress and after detecting a seizure will transmit an alarm to a pager, which can be worn by the parent or caregiver. It works by detecting excessive movement from the child in bed, such as during a convulsive seizure. The muscle jerking or shaking movements that occur during this kind of seizure are picked up quickly by the monitor so that parents can get straight to their child and deal appropriately with the seizure.
Epilepsy monitors of this kind are used in hospitals and carehomes across the world and now more and more families are using them to monitor their children and loved ones. Parents feel more at ease in the knowledge that they will be alerted as soon as their child starts to have a seizure, meaning they are able to time the seizure, make sure their child is safe and if needed get them to medical help as quickly as possible.
Helping to Prevent False Alarms
If your child rolls and turns a lot in their sleep, it’s important to invest in a bed movement alarm that has a control setting for motion sensitivity. You can then set the time delay so that the pager will not be alerted unless movement occurs for more than a set amount of seconds. This helps to prevent false alarms when your child has simply turned in their sleep or moved around in their bed.
The Medpage MP5 alarm has this feature and also has a sensor which can be changed to take into account a thicker mattress. It is suitable for children from around aged 5 who weigh at least 56lbs. The pager is extremely lightweight, at only 125g, yet compact and can be clipped easily onto your clothes. It’s completely wireless and runs on 2 AA batteries and has an indicator when the battery is running low. You can set the pager to vibrate, make a tone or a combination of the two, with varying volume. This epilepsy monitor also has a flashing light when the alarm has been activated.
Is a Bed Movement Alarm Suitable for Your Child?
Bed movement alarms are only suitable for detecting tonic clonic seizures because it is the rapid movement which triggers the alarm. If your child has, or is at risk of, this type of seizure it’s definitely a worthwhile investment. There are so many different gadgets and monitors out there that are marketed at people with epilepsy that it’s tough to know which you really need and how much you need to spend. However, many parents report an immense sense of relief knowing that they’ll be able to respond quickly to nocturnal seizures and make sure their child is safe. The last thing you want is to be getting up 10 times per night to check on your child and these monitors are a really good way to give you peace of mind while your child is asleep so that you too can get a good night’s rest.
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