A baby boy who giggled uncontrollably had a rare brain tumour, causing laughing seizures for up to 17 hours a day.

Jack Young's parents, Gemma and Ed, of Winscombe, north Somerset, thought their baby was just really happy.

But when the constant giggles became too much, keeping the family up at night, medics revealed that the outbursts were triggered by a benign brain tumour called hypothalamic hamartoma.   

This caused 'gelastic' epileptic seizures - dubbed 'laughing seizures'. The rare tumours are thought to affect one in 200,000 people.

Two years after the outbursts began, which could last from first thing in the morning until last thing at night, Jack, who is now four, had a 10 hour operation to remove the growth and the strange seizures stopped. 

Jack's relieved mother, Mrs Young, 32, said: 'There was no break from it, the chuckle sound was constant, and for a long time we had no clue why.

'We were exhausted and so happy when, after two long years, doctors could finally operate on Jack and put an end to his seizures.'

Source: dailymail.co.uk