Convulsions seldom pose a risk to life. Many can barely endure a short time before stopping on their own. Even so, seeing a child suffering from a convulsion may be scary, so knowing what to do is helpful.

Symptoms and Signs

There are different types of convulsion, including uncontrollable arm and leg movements and bouts of staring. Some indications that a child may be suffering a seizure include:

• Before the seizure, there may be strange feelings or twitching.
• Gazing and failing to answer to anybody
• Uncontrolled spasms of muscles
• Awareness is lost (passes out)
• Uncontrollable urination or faeces

How to Respond if Your Child Is Having a Convulsion

• Ask anybody around to contact your child’s doctor if they are close. If no one is with you, do as follows before calling the doctor:
• Get rid of any adjacent things before placing your infant gently on the ground or floor.
• To avoid choking on saliva, turn your infant onto his or her side (spit).
• Clear the mouth gently with your finger if your child vomits.
• Dislodge any clothing that is about the neck or head.
• Verify if your child is breathing normally.
• Try not to stop your child from shaking; doing so may worsen their discomfort and have no effect on the convulsion
• Don’t let your child put anything in their mouth, and never put anything into your child’s mouth either. Your infant won’t be able to swallow their tongue, and yanking their teeth apart might harm them or obstruct their airways.
• Give your child nothing to eat or drink, and wait until they are fully awake and attentive before giving them any tablets or fluids by mouth.
• Try to record the length of the convulsion.
• After the convulsion, your kid could feel tired or need some time to come back to normal. After the seizure, let your kid rest while you stay with him or her until he or she is awake and conscious.

Seek immediate medical attention if your child:

• Experiences a convulsion that lasts more than five minutes or has many seizures
• having difficulty breathing
• has blue-tinged lips, tongue, or face.
• stays unconscious for a prolonged period of time after a seizure
• Before or during a seizure, a person stumbles or bumps their head.
• seems to be ill
• a seizure while swimming
• exhibits any signs that worry you

Ensure You Prevent Further Seizures !

Make sure your child gets enough sleep and takes any prescription seizure medication on time if they have a known seizure disorder.

Febrile Convulsion

Fits known as febrile convulsion (also known as febrile seizure) may occur when a fever has a fever. Between the ages of 6 months and 3 years, they occur most often.

Seeing your child have a seizure may be terrifying and upsetting, especially if it’s their first seizure.

However, these seizures are often not harmful, and virtually all children recover fully after them.

You may still need to request an ambulance or transport your child to the closest hospital as a precaution.

A febrile convulsion early symptoms

Typically, a febrile seizure lasts fewer than five minutes. Your kid’s going to

lose consciousness, stiffen, and start to jerk their limbs and legs. They may also wet or dirty themselves.
Additionally, they could feel queasy, froth at the lips, and have rolling eyes.

Your child could feel tired for up to an hour after the seizure. This kind of simple febrile seizure will only occur once while your kid is unwell.

Frequent febrile seizures might last longer than 15 minutes, and your child’s symptoms can just affect a single body part.

Complex febrile seizures are the name given to this. There are situations when these seizures recur within a day or when your kid is unwell.

How to respond to a febrile seizure

Put your child in the recovery posture if they are experiencing a febrile seizure.

Try to record how long the seizure lasts while remaining beside your child

During a seizure, avoid giving your kid anything to swallow, even medication, since there’s a danger they might bite their tongue. 

Take your Child to a Closest hospital if:

• Your child is experiencing a seizure for the first time; the seizure lasts more than five minutes and shows no signs of ending; and you fear another catastrophic condition, such as meningitis, is to blame.
• Your toddler is having trouble breathing. Although a significant issue is unlikely to exist, it is crucial to get your child examined.
• Call your hospital or any emergency response facility if the seizure lasts more than five minutes and your child has previously had febrile seizures.
• If your child seems to be experiencing dehydration  (a lack of fluid in the body), you should also call a doctor 

Seeing a Doctor

From a description of what transpired, febrile seizures are often identified. Since it’s rare that a doctor would see the seizure, it’s important to note:

• What occurred during the seizure, such as the body stiffening, twitching of the face, arms, and legs, gazing, and loss of consciousness, and how long it lasted
• If your child was able to recover within an hour or whether they had ever experienced a seizure
• If the reason of your child’s sickness is unclear, more testing, such a blood or urine test, may be required.
• It may be necessary to collect a urine sample from young children in a hospital since it may sometimes be challenging to do so.
• If your kid exhibits uncommon symptoms or is experiencing complicated febrile seizures, more tests and hospital monitoring are often advised, especially if they are less than 12 months old.

The tests that might be suggested consist of:

A brain electrode study known as an electroencephalogram (EEG), which records the electrical activity of your child’s brain. Brain activity patterns that are unusual might sometimes be a sign of epilepsy.
A lumbar puncture, which involves taking a little sample of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from the spine for analysis. The CSF, a transparent liquid that surrounds and shields the brain and spinal cord, is clear. It is possible to tell whether your kid has a brain or nervous system infection via a lumbar puncture.

Febrile seizures’ causes

Even though they are associated with the onset of a high temperature, the aetiology of febrile seizures remains uncertain (fever).

Given that experiencing a seizure is more likely if a near relative has a history of them, febrile seizures may possibly have a hereditary component.

The child’s fever is often brought on by an infection. The flu, tonsillitis, chickenpox, and the flu are typical instances.

After a child receives a vaccine, febrile seizures are more likely to occur.

Recurrent Febrile Convulsion

One in three children who have had a febrile seizure may have another one during a later illness. Within a year following the first one, this often occurs.

Recurrence is more probable if:

• Your child’s first febrile seizure occurred before they became 18 months old.
• Before having their first seizure, your child had a fever that lasted less than an hour or had a temperature under 40 degrees Celsius, there is a history of seizures or epilepsy in your family.
• Earlier, your youngster had a complicated febrile seizure (more than one seizure during their illness)
• Your child goes to a daycare centre, which raises their risk of contracting common childhood illnesses like the flu or chickenpox.
• It is not advised to offer your kid a prescription for typical medications to stop subsequent febrile seizures. This is due to the fact that the dangers of having seizures itself are outweighed by the negative side effects of many medications.

According to studies, using medications to lower temperatures is not likely to stop additional febrile seizures.

When seizures do occur, a physician may sometimes advise medication like midazolam or diazepam.

Children who have a febrile seizure after a regular vaccination—which is very rare—are no more likely to experience another seizure than kids who experience a seizure as a result of an illness.

Problems associated with febrile convulsion

An increased risk of epilepsy has been associated with febrile seizures.

Many parents are concerned that if their kid has one or more febrile seizures, they may eventually develop epilepsy. A person with epilepsy has frequent convulsions without a temperature.

There is little doubt that children who have had febrile convulsion are at a higher risk of having epilepsy, although this risk is still very low.

According to estimates, children who have had uncomplicated febrile convulsions have a one in fifty probability of having epilepsy in the future.

A 1 in 20 probability that a child with a history of complicated febrile episodes may grow up with epilepsy.

A 1 to 2 in 100 risk exists that someone who has never had febrile seizures would develop epilepsy.

References

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/febrile-seizures/#what-to-do-during-a-febrile-seizur