Febrile Convulsions

I was recently very scared by my 17 month old having a febrile convulsion. I heard him gurgling on the monitor and went in to find him fitting. I put him on his side and called an ambulance. He was staring straight ahead, foaming at the mouth and gently jerking. I have never been more scared. After the fit which only lasted a minute or two he fell asleep and was unrousable for a few more minutes. The advice I was given:
Place in recovery position, time the fit and observe what is happening. Remove clothing and fan gently (not too much which may cause them to shiver). Seek medical help. Apparently it is caused not by a high fever itself, but a spike in temperature. This means its hard to prevent. It does not cause any long term affects and usually doesn't occur again in the same illness. However, it may occur again in some childrem with future illnesses. I hope I never have to go through this again and hopefully this will help someone else.

Hugs!!


So scary. My DS1 had one when he was about 11months old. Scared me for years after at the slightest temp spike or change.

Good on you for staying so calm and helping him through it smile

I give dd panadol and nurofen, spaced an hour apart every time she has a temp. I don't care if people say the temp is to fight illness ect - the body will still fight it with panadol and nurofen on board.

I have seen too many febrile convulsions at work to wait around for it to spike. Regular dosing works for me.

I have had a few of these in my times and they are very scary if you don't know what they are or have never seen before. Lucky for me i had been a career for and epliptic child so seeing the fit for me was not as scary what was it that she was so hot all of a sudden.

I was told at the hospital that the fits are caused by a sudden raising of the temperature not the temp it'self.

Also be aware once you've had one there will be more so be on the look out for temps in the future they can rise very fast causing fits again.

Good luck and hope for your sake you never see one again.
Jen

Hey I don't want to worry anyone but they told my mum the same thing when I was a baby.

It was a very hot day and I did also have a temp. They were not sure which one caused it. I started convulsing and foaming at the mouth etc.
I was then paralised down my right hand side for a few hours. We were over 1hr from a hospital so I can only imagin how my mum felt.(apparently dad was worse!!!) My sisters found it very exciting as the ambulance was coming to their house!

20 years later they have finally diagnosed all those dizzy spells I have had all my life as they gradually developed into seizures. Epilepsy!!!
The kind I have is usually hereditary so the only thing that they can put it down to is that there was some damage caused during that initial seizure.