5 yr.old with epilepsy

My 5 yr.old has had 5 grand mal seizures in 3 years. she is developmentally delayed and now her Dr. thinks she is having petit mal seizures due to her delay and staring. Last week her EEG was abnormal on 3 parts of her brain. They want to start her on Depakote but I am so afraid of the side effects. I would love any info on children taking Depakote.

Thank you!

I started having petit mals at age 11. I didn't know what they were until I was in college. They're more annoying than anything, not painful. Everybody feels a little different when they have them, so I'm not sure anyone could give you an answer of what they feel like and have it match what your little girl is going through. The most we can do is tell you what our's are like, and hopefully something will ring a bell.
How you feel before one is called an 'aura', and like I said everyone's different. Body temp can change, and it affects your senses, so you can smell weird things, hear ringing or have things go silent, have problems with your vision (things have a red hue, or go blurry out of focus), and a number of other things, most very mild, but annoying nonetheless. Most common with mine are heart racing, getting really hot, and not being able to concentrate. Sometimes they'll happen a lot in one day, and people think there's something mentally wrong b/c I don't respond the right way to their questions or comments b/c my head kind of goes blank for a few seconds, and I miss an important part of what they're saying. That's where it's really annoying.
I have quite a few friends who take depakote for either seizures or bipolar, and it works really well for them. I tried it myself, but had a hard time with it, as far as it messing with my stomache. But that's a common problem for me. It's a really good one to try. I'd talk to your doc about side effects too. I can only imagine how scary it is to watch your daughter go through this, but it sounds like you're an incredible mom. Hang in there.

Thank you for your replies! I can understand this all better now. It is starting to make sense. I have been trying to get her help for 2 years now. She was in preschool for 2 years ..they kept telling me she was slow or LD. But at home she was so different and I knew she was smart. But some times she looked kind of stoned and sleepy. She acted like she was ignoring us and her teachers, and would get in trouble for "not listening". We had her tested at the public school and they thought she was slow and suggested early childhood (special ED). I knew she was intelligent, she knew everything on the list of things you need to know to start kindergarten , so I didn't understand. One visit to the Catholic school and the principle said to us "she is having petit mal seizures". we took her to the neurologist at our children's hospital and they did an EEG and it was all abnormal(awake and asleep) she was having hundreds of seizures a day. The doctor told me she was losing half her day everyday due to the seizures.

She has been on depakote for only 2 days and I can already see a difference!!!! I think that every teacher should be educated on spotting this. I wonder how long she would have had to suffer if i would have listened to the public school and just treated her like she was retarded. It makes me wonder how many of the kids in special education classes are really having seizures?

oh i am 16 by the way