Seizures in Children
What are seizures?
What happens to a child during a seizure?
A seizure is the same in a child and an adult. When too many nerve cells send signals, your child's brain can't make any sense of them and abnormal things happen. For example, your child might:
Usually after a few minutes, the nerve cells start to behave normally and your child comes back to normal.
What is epilepsy?
Epilepsy is when someone keeps having seizures over a long period of time.
Some children who have a seizure will never have another and don't have epilepsy. Children with epilepsy have many seizures, but the number of seizures varies. Some children have only 1 or 2 seizures a year. Some children have seizures every day.
What causes seizures in children?
Most of the time doctors don’t know what makes a child have seizures.
Sometimes seizures are caused by brain damage due to:
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Lack of oxygen during birth
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Head injury
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Birth defects of the brain
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Brain infections (such as meningitis)
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Inherited problems with the body's chemical balance, called metabolic disorders
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Use of illegal drugs by a pregnant mother
High fever sometimes causes a seizure (febrile seizure) in young children.
What does a seizure look like?
Newborns having a seizure may:
A newborn doesn't usually shake all over like an older child having a seizure.
Older infants or young children having a seizure may:
Sometimes convulsions affect only part of the body, such as the arm and leg on one side.
During a seizure, the child isn't aware of what's going on and can't talk or respond to you. However, the child is still breathing. After the seizure, the child is usually a little confused. The confusion can last up to an hour or two.
Can seizures damage the brain?
What should I do if my child is having a seizure?
What does the doctor do after a child has a seizure?
What the doctor does depends on whether:
This is my child's first seizure
With a first seizure, it's very important that the doctor look for a dangerous cause. After examining your child, doctors will usually do tests. Those tests can include:
If those tests are normal, the doctor may do a test called an EEG to measure the brain's electrical signals.
My child has had seizures before
If your child has had seizures before and has already had tests, doctors usually aren't worried unless:
In such cases, your child should see the doctor, and the doctor may repeat some of the tests. If your child is taking medicine to prevent seizures, the doctor will usually do a blood test to make sure there's enough medicine in your child's bloodstream.
If your child has a seizure that's no different from past seizures, then a doctor visit may not be needed. Talk to your doctor in advance about what to do if your child has another seizure.
