A young Inverness couple are desperately seeking a cure for their son who suffers from a rare form of epilepsy which can cause him to suffer 100 seizures a day.
Fifteen-month-old Kiylan Munro has been diagnosed with infantile spasms, which affect about one in 3,000 children.
The seizures are usually brief – lasting just a few seconds at times – but can be violent, causing the toddler to lunge forward in a bowing motion, while throwing his arms out stiffly.
Parents Natalie Mackinnon and Andrew Munro said efforts to find a cause of the seizures had so far drawn a blank.
And the couple, who live in the Merkinch area of the city, said the condition was so rare they sometimes felt they know more about it than the doctors treating their son.
Mr Munro said: “He has been seen by a specialist from Dundee who has been helpful but there’s nobody up here who is really an expert to help us.
“To be honest we’ve read up on it so much ourselves that we feel as if we know more than a lot of the staff at Raigmore about it.”
Kiylan’s parents first suspected something was wrong at the age of four months when they noticed his eyes rolling oddly.
He was eventually taken to Raigmore Hospital in Inverness aged about seven months – and while medication has helped control the seizures, attempts to find the cause have so far proved fruitless.
Now Kiylan is due to have a second MRI scan to try to get to the root of the problems.
Mr Munro, who gave up a full time job in order to care for his son, said the youngster was doing well with the medication helping him to manage the condition.
However, his parents are concerned about the potential long term damage that the seizures could be doing to his brain.
Mr Munro, said: “It’s not a struggle with him, but it is a worry. You just know what is going to happen day to day.
“He forgets things. Sometimes he crawls and sometimes it’s like he forgets. I think being around other kids helps him because it’s like he tries to copy them.”
Miss Mackinnon added: “Neither of have had a break really since he was born.
“It really is 24/7.”