What to do if your baby has epileptic seizures?

Most of the time, in toddlers, the seizures look like a banal discomfort. His gaze becomes fixed for a few seconds. He “loses contact” with you. Sometimes, when awake, or even during sleep, he chews, has involuntary, automatic gestures … In addition to these “bizarre” absences, the seizures can also result in a spasm of the face which lasts a few seconds, a rejection of the head back, eyes rolled back, arms drooping, before the child starts to cry. Your child may also pass out, usually for less than 15 minutes. Despite these disturbing episodes, it should be noted that 5% of children under 5 will have “an epileptic event”, which, in two-thirds of cases, will not recur and will not give rise to a “true epileptic disease”. The cause is then only a central nervous system still immature, unstable.

What Are the Causes of Epilepsy in Newborns?

The epileptic seizures are due to temporary disorders of brain electrical activity. This alteration in electrical activity can have many causes. When it’s just a epileptic event isolated, the origin is rarely disturbing. A little fever or certain medications may be enough to trigger it.

On the other hand, when it is a question of chronic epilepsy, the brain injury is often to be feared. It can be due to a shock to the head, a tumor, an infection …epilepsy is also sometimes hereditary (less than 10% of cases). If the mother suffers from it, it is necessary to be particularly vigilant during the pregnancy. The antiepileptic drugs and the importance of crises can sometimes lead to fetal malformations.

It is essential to detect baby’s disease as soon as possible. This limits the risk of complications of epilepsy in children such as damage to areas of the brain related to language or movement. The difficulty being of course that crises can manifest themselves very differently from one child to another… Some crises are thus almost invisible: baby just has a fleeting absence, his gaze is fixed, absent. This is often the case forneonatal epilepsy, affecting babies less than one month old. Other crises, on the other hand, are much more noticeable: convulsions, spinning eyes, crying, cut in breathing, loss of consciousness… Let us always remain vigilant on this subject.

How to recognize an epileptic seizure in an infant?

Epilepsy is the expression of a temporary dysfunction of the electrical activity of the brain which results in epileptic seizures, also called “comitial”. When repeated over a period of the child’s life, it becomes a chronic disease. In 5 to 10% of these cases, it is due to family predispositions, hereditary. In 40% of cases, it is the manifestation of a cerebral anomaly (congenital lesion, birth pain, head trauma due to shock, tumor, encephalitis, etc.).

We must differentiate between convulsive seizures, other varieties of cerebral seizures, including sudden and irrepressible fits of sleep – with a potential fall (narcolepsy) and episodes of sleepwalking. Or: seizures due to ingestion of drugs or neurotoxic chemicals.

In addition, let us not confuse the various physical manifestations of a temporary discomfort with epileptic seizures. For example, tremor of the chin (tremulations), or extremities, aggravated by crying and anger (including spasms of sobbing), symptoms resulting from gastroesophageal reflux (cut breathing) or vagal discomfort related to heart rhythm disturbances (paleness, sweating, loss of consciousness, hypotonia) should be considered and reported to our pediatrician but are not epileptic seizures.

What are the symptoms and signs of epilepsy in babies?

Among the signs that should immediately alert, note high fevers accompanied by convulsions. Even if the vast majority of them do not recur, leave no sequelae and are due to fever, a few may be a sign of an early epileptic disease. In addition, let us be vigilant with sudden falls and absences, with the eyes which turn, with the movements jerks, convulsive, with the automatisms, with the “strange” noises emitted during the night and which obviously do not correspond to nightmares. In all cases : see your doctor. He will certainly ask you for details on the onset of the seizures, how they unfold and the child’s behavior.

How is epilepsy diagnosed in babies?

In the brain of a small child, in full production, “overheating” is quickly reached. Hence its neurological, transient fragility. The risks of seizures are greater. If they are repeated, worsen, they can affect cognitive faculties, language, motor skills, sensitive perceptions and therefore damage functional areas that are not yet stabilized. Hence the challenge of early diagnosis and appropriate treatment, in order to avoid complications.

The doctor will first ask you about the symptoms observed during the attack.baby epilepsy and on any family history. Secondly, it usually asks for a electroencephalography (EEG). Small electrodes are positioned on the child’s skull to assess his brain electrical activity. It may take time to spot a malfunction. Baby can thus be kept for several hours for observation in the hospital, where the medical staff will perform several EEGs. Cameras are sometimes also placed in the room, in order to identify symptoms such as convulsions or spasms for example.

In order to confirm the diagnosis, it is common to do an MRI next. This perfectly painless medical imaging technique allows you to obtain a picture of the brain baby. This way, the doctor will often spot the lesion or brain tumor that is causing the epilepsy.

What treatment for epileptic seizures in a child?

There are several ways to stop thebaby epilepsy. Treatment depends mainly on the cause of the disease. If it is due to a tumor, for example, surgical removal of the tumor may be enough to stop the seizures. Most of the time, however, it will be a drug treatment based onantiepileptic. This treatment can last for many years but is very effective: about 3/4 of children will see their seizures disappear completely. When drug treatment does not work, a electrical stimulation of the vagus nerve can be considered. A small generator and electrodes are installed in the child’s chest and neck respectively, most often under general anesthesia. The vagus nerve is thus electrically stimulated regularly, which greatly calms seizures.

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