What parents need to know about febrile seizure in childrenOccasionally a child usually between the ages of about 6 months to 6 years gets an attack of convulsion during a febrile illness. This is known as febrile seizure (febrile convulsion). For more information on fever please visit the page on fever in babies. This commonly occurs within 24 hours of the onset of fever. The manifestations vary from one child to the other. There may be brief loss or impairment of consciousness, deviation of eyes to one side, frothing at mouth, involuntary passage of urine or stool or convulsive movements of limbs on one or both sides, which may be mild or vigorous. The condition always evokes lot of anxiety in parents but is usually self-limited. The attack is usually very brief and often subsides before the parents reach the hospital. Rarely it can be prolonged requiring medication for convulsion. During the attack the child should be prevented from getting injured. The child should be placed on a firm surface and turned to one side. However it is absolutely essential to rule out serious conditions like bacterial meningitis and encephalitis and any child who throws a fit should be shown to a doctor at the earliest. It is not clearly known why some children suffer from fits when they have fever (even mild fever some times though it is more common when a child has high fever) while other children do not even with high degree of fever. It may be due to genetic factors as quite often we see more than one child in a family having it. A doctor can usually make out clinically whether there is any serious disease or not. But occasionally he may have to perform a procedure called lumbar puncture to exclude meningitis. This involves putting a needle through lower back into the spinal canal to withdraw small quantify of a fluid called cerebrospinal fluid surrounding the brain and spinal cord. Laboratory examination of this fluid will confirm or rule out meningitis. Once the doctor opines there is nothing serious the parents can relax. Because febrile seizure can recur with subsequent febrile illness in some children, parents should know what they need to do in case the child has fever. They should always keep at home a medicine which can reduce fever. Paracetamol is safe and can be given every six hours if needed. It can be given in a dose of 10 to 15 milligram per kilogram body weight of the child per dose. It is also necessary to wipe the whole body with a cloth dipped in water. Another drug, which can actually prevent a convulsion if given as soon as a child gets fever is Diazepam. A doctor should be consulted for correct dosage. This drug can be given every 8 hours in case there is fever. It causes drowsiness. The above measures are enough to prevent recurrence of febrile seizures in majority of children. Any other medicine advised by the doctor for that particular illness should be given. Febrile seizure does not occur after the age of six years. However some children get repeated attacks of febrile seizure in spite of above measures. Some children get a convulsion so early with the onset of fever that the parents have little time to administer the required medication. Such children may require daily preventive medication.
Page last reviewed on 19th November 2009
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