Baby has convulsions, how to react?

What is a convulsion in a baby?

Fever and tremors: febrile convulsions

Febrile convulsions are muscle twitching attacks associated with fever, not associated with neurological infection. As his temperature rises sharply, suddenly your child turns pale, throws his head back, his eyes roll back and his whole body is restless. symmetrical, jerky and involuntary muscle contractions. He may also lose consciousness or have a short absence, become all limp or all blue.

Seizures affect about 5% of babies between 9 months and 5 years old, so they are quite common at this age. As impressive as they are, these seizures are usually mild and in the majority of cases will not leave any after-effects. Moreover, most often, after a few minutes, the child comes to himself and falls asleep peacefully. But in any case, this is not to be taken lightly, and you must consult a doctor urgently. By carrying out a complete assessment, the doctor will rule out more serious pathologies, such as meningitis or encephalitis. If fever is not the cause of the discomfort, the seizures may be caused by brain dysfunction or epilepsy.

Seizures can be repeated with a new bout of fever in 30% of cases. The seizures known as ” complicated », Also linked to a feverish episode, will last more than 15 minutes, can be repeated several times during the day and cause neurological sequelae. They mainly concern children under one year of age and babies with a previous neurological or psychomotor development disorder.

What causes these convulsions?

Between 1 and 6 years, the main trigger is fever. This sudden rise in body temperature can occur after vaccination or more often during angina, otitis … It causes ‘overheating of the brain’ which results in a seizure. When fever is involved, we talk about hyperthermic convulsions.

Another factor: your child may have ingested or swallowed a cleaning product or a medicine.

Other causes to explore besides fever

A hypoglycemia (severe and abnormal decrease in blood sugar level) in a child with diabetes, a significant decrease in sodium caused by dehydration following severe gastroenteritis or, more rarely, hypocalcemia (too low calcium levels) due to vitamin D deficiency rickets can also cause seizures.

Finally, sometimes seizures can also be the beginning of a epilepsy. The development of the child, additional examinations as well as the existence of a history of epilepsy in the family guide the diagnosis.

Finally, note that there may be a genetic predisposition seizures: the risk of seizures increases by two in a child whose parents both had febrile seizures when they were children.

Baby is convulsing, what to do and how to react?

It is an emergency and it is necessary call your doctor or Samu (15). While waiting for their arrival, lie your child on his side (in the lateral safety position), preferably in a cool room not overheated (18-20 ° C). Keep anything that could hurt him, especially around his head. Stay by his side, but don’t try anything. No need, for example, to hold his tongue ‘so that he does not swallow it’. You also need to lower your fever. When the convulsions stop, in less than five minutes in general, discover it and give him Paracetamol or Ibuprofen, respecting the advice of the leaflet; prefer suppositories, it is even more effective.

What the doctor will do about a seizure

If you have a seizure, your doctor will probably give valium to the child. This medicine will be used to stop seizures if they have not already gone away on their own. In the event of a new attack, he will leave a prescription for you to have at home, and he will explain to you under what conditions and how to use it. He will also identify the cause of the fever. Objective: rule out potentially serious illness such as encephalitis (inflammation of the brain) or meningitis (inflammation of the meninges and cerebrospinal fluid).

If there is any doubt, he will have the child hospitalized and ask for a lumbar puncture to confirm his diagnosis. Finally, the infection that caused the fever or the metabolic disorder that caused the seizures may need to be treated. If the seizures are repeated or if the first episode of seizure was particularly severe, the child should follow a long-term antiepileptic drug, every day for at least a year, to prevent recurrence.

How to recognize and diagnose a seizure in babies?

From the onset of the seizure episode, it is necessary to see a doctor or take baby to the emergency room. As the crisis is brief, it is usually over during the consultation. So you will need tell in detail what happened for baby. The doctor will then make sure that the seizure is due to the fever.

He will look for the origin of this fever, which can be otitis or rhinopharyngitis. When in doubt, he will make sure it is not meningitis. To do this, he will proceed to an electroencephalogram, or possibly a lumbar puncture, in order to clarify whether the seizure is simple or complicated and, if so, he may consider antiepileptic treatment and hospitalization for further tests.

How to treat baby’s seizures?

After calling the SAMU, check that his nose and mouth are clear, there may be vomiting, and if necessary keep his mouth open. Since the simple seizure is due to fever, it is necessary to lower it by giving it an antipyretic such as paracetamol. The doctor may prescribe preventive treatment to be given to the baby in case of high fever to prevent further attacks. If they are complicated seizures, the treatment will be done during the hospitalization of the baby and can be very different depending on the causes.

Childhood convulsions: is it hereditary?

No, of course, but family history in siblings or parents, do represent an additional risk. Thus, a child whose one of the parents or a brother or a sister has already had febrile convulsions, has a risk in two of having them in turn.

Seizures: are recurrences frequent?

They occur in 30% of cases on average. Their frequency varies according to the age of the child: the younger the child, the greater the risk of recurrence. But this is nothing to worry about: some children may have several episodes of febrile seizures during their first years without this affecting their general condition and their development.

Can these convulsions leave sequelae?

Rarely. This happens especially when they are a sign of an underlying disease (meningitis, encephalitis or severe epilepsy). They can then cause psychomotor, intellectual or sensory disorders.