Febrile Seizures

Okay, so your child has had a seizure and you are freaking out. Let me see if I can calm you down.

If your child had a fever during the seizure, and this is the first time a seizure has occurred, it’s a good bet that your child has simple febrile seizures.

Simple febrile seizures are characterized by the following:

generalized (the whole body is either stiff or shaking)
lasting less than five minutes
the child having no underlying neurological problems
accompanied by sudden fever
occurring only once during this particular episode

If this is the case, then these seizures do not lead me to think that a permanent state of epilepsy will follow. These types of seizures will generally go away after the age of six years.

Your child may get febrile seizures in the future.

The important points to remember are these:

It’s the quickness of how fast the fever arises that causes the seizure, not the height of the fever. So, if your child already has a temperature of 103 or 104, in my opinion they are less likely to get a seizure. In other words you don’t have to panic because the fever is already at 103 or 104.
The seizure will not fry the brain.
If your child is having a seizure, rest them on the floor with their head turned to the side so that they will not breathe in any food should they vomit.
Calmly have someone call 911.
Relax. The seizure will most likely last 3 to 5 minutes at a maximum.
I have never sen anyone die of a febrile seizure.

Generally I will refer your child to a neurologist for an opinion. The neurologist may order a CT scan and an EEG (brain wave test).