My son had an EEG done twice. Once was for febrile seizures to ensure there was no permanent damage done. The second was during a sleep study to determine if he was breathing through the night. They can be a little scary for kids, but completely painless and often helpful. Also they can sometime determine if the brain waves in certain areas are different than your "standard" reading which might indicate a problem.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/02/11...

my 3yo had an EEG.. in his case it was to find out if there was a cause to his seizure disorder (it came back fine). In my case, he's a restless child and has undiagnosed adhd. sitting still in an environment he didn't understand was frightening for both of us. The strapped him down to a bed, wrapped him up in velcro, and stuck little wires to his head with this glue stuff that really is quite weak. He screamed and cried and they weren't equipped to accomodate the needs of an autistic kid. but I'm thankful we got it done so there aren't any questions..

1/3 of kids with autism have seizures. Some develop during puberty. Some have a seizure, then not another. Some have on-going sub-clinical seizures that are tough to diagnose. You need to rule out seizure activity. Absolutely necessary. With little kids they often do the sleep deprived ones, where you keep them up late, then bring them in in the morning, and they stick on the electrodes (hopefully if your child is sleepy, it will be easier.

With my son, they gave him a short acting drug to make him sleepy. But of course that can change the brain activity. Remember, your child can have seizures at other times that the EEG's don't show. We did TWO sleep deprived EEG's AND at around age 9, did a 24 hour EEG with video telemetry which was in-patient.... all were negative. Then at age 13, 2 days after his birthday, my son had a major seizure landing him in the hospital. But not another since.

It is extremely helpful to have a good neurologist EXPERIENCED with ASD. Drugs have side effects. It is important to be very careful when choosing to medicate. But if your child has seizures, you absolutely need to treat that. Seizures can damage the brain.

I know it seems a little freaky, but don't be scared. EEG's are a hassle, but they don't hurt. Those sticky electrodes can be annoying, and young children may fight, so think in advance what you can do to distract your child. If they get too upset during the procedure, then they have to cancel, because they can't get a reading. Thus, the sleep deprived ones: partly because tiredness can induce seizure activity, but also if your kid falls asleep at the docs, that can be helpful.

We had a routine EEG done (also called a sleep-deprived EEG) about a month ago b/c my son has been having staring episodes which are probably seizures. While the EEG came back normal, we are on a waiting list to see a neurologist b/c he's still having them pretty regularly.

I heard so many horror stories before my son's EEG that I was a nervous wreck. It went fine...we kept him up late and woke him up early, gave him the ipod to play games on while they hooked him up (that's the hardest part, as it takes quite a while and my son doesn't like having his head messed with). After sitting still for the 30-40 minutes it took to hook him up, he was drowsy enough to fall asleep pretty quick into it. He woke up at the end and was kind of agitated, but they let me hold his hand and talk to him to calm him down, and he did fine! I hope yours goes as smoothly.

I also had a friend send me photos of her son (my son's buddy) all hooked up from his last EEG, so he could see what was going to be on his head, since all the wires attached can really freak a kid (and his mommy) out. Knowing what to expect also helped him allow them to get him ready.

It is scary, like everything unknown. But the EEG itself, though a little stressful, was not a big deal for us. I also made sure they knew when I made the appt. that he was a young child with autism, and talked to the technician who would be working with him about what to expect myself. She was awesome! I would definitely recommend that you do that!

Good luck to you!

I had one done to determine or rule out any TBI traumatic brain injuries, my daughter had hers before she received a diagnosis to rule out any medical problems, oh and to check for seizures because that disorder could have some resemblance of ASD