My 12 year old son had a traumatic birth, at which time he had about 4 mild seizures. At the time, he was put on phenobarbital, which he was on for 3 months. He was then weaned off, and hadn't had any problems since. He did have some brain damage from the birth trauma, but has had no effects. He is a normally developed twelve year old, A/B student, plays sports, interacts normally, etc. However, 3 months ago, he had 4 or 5 small seizures within a two day period. The emergency room doctor called them absence seizures, but on further testing (MRI, CAT scan, EEG, etc.), the neurologist diagnosed partial complex seizures. Only one of the seizures was longer than a few seconds. It was about 5 minutes. It was just staring, and confusion afterwards. He was in the hospital for two days, sent home on 300mg per day of trileptal. We have had no seizures since then, until one week ago, when he had a 10 second seizure after looking out the window on a bright sunny day. However, he didn't get the headache or confusion like he had before. He felt completely normal. Also, he had a huge smile on his face the whole time. Today, another 10 second seizure, after looking out the window. He just sat there, chewing on a sandwich and staring, not answering me. I have two questions: Is it normal for him to continue eating while he's having a seizure? Was it really a seizure? Again, he didn't have any confusion afterward. My second question is could this be due to impending puberty? Someone mentioned this to me, and I wondered why he would go so many years with nothing, then start having them. MRI and CAT scan showed previous scar tissue from traumatic birth, and EEG was slightly abnormal, but they were unable to induce a seizure. Thank you!