One of the most difficult times of being a pediatric assistant was working in the pediatric emergency department. Poisoning cases, injury cases, falls from heights, those who cannot move their arms due to vomiting and diarrhea, coughing fits, foreign objects stuck in their throats, traffic accidents, many feverish diseases and of course, febrile seizures... It has become a part of our daily routine.
Among the patients who come to the emergency room, those who enter the emergency room unconscious in their parents' arms as a result of a febrile seizure are the ones who come to the emergency department in a more dramatic way, although they usually come in a more dramatic way. They would leave the service. Febrile seizures were not a bad situation for us, but for the parents whose child had a febrile seizure, their world literally went dark for a few minutes. Especially for a family who has had their first fever, you could even reach out and touch the extreme anxiety that occurs with the thought of losing their child and literally surrounds their body.
This article is about those who are heartbroken every time their child has a fever. It is written for mothers and fathers whose world's rotation slows down until they recover.
Convulsion or also known as seizure; It is a change in motor movement and/or behavior that occurs for a certain period of time as a result of abnormal electrical activity in the brain (if you have not seen someone having a seizure before, let me give you a couple of examples to give you an idea: eyes staring at a point, body contraction, or pulses in the arms and legs that can be so strong that you cannot stop them, mouth breathing). foaming, bruising, sudden collapse, etc.).
Seizures are common in the pediatric age group and are seen in approximately one in ten children (10%). Most seizures seen in children are triggered by diseases originating outside the brain, such as high fever, infection, syncope, head trauma, toxins, cardiac arrhythmia, and asphyxiation.
Epilepsy or epilepsy is caused by the brain. It creates triggered seizures and less than 1/3 of the seizures in children are due to this reason.
So when we say seizure, the first thing that comes to our mind is epilepsy, but epilepsy is one of the causes of seizures.
The most common cause of seizures in childhood is fever. The prognosis of febrile seizures is generally very good, but it can also indicate very serious underlying infections such as meningitis, so every child with fever and seizures should be examined very carefully, necessary tests should be performed and the cause of fever should be thoroughly examined.
If we review some figures about febrile seizures;
–It occurs between 6 months and 5 years of age,
-Everyone under the age of 5 >5 out of 100 childrenhave febrile seizures,
-2/3 of the patients are boys,
-Average age of onset,1 ,It is between the ages of 5-2,
-Febrile seizures are seen again in 1/3 of children,
- Those who have a history of febrile seizures in their first-degree relatives have a higher risk of febrile seizures or the possibility of recurrence if they have had one. lasted less than a minute..) The prognosis of this group is good in prospective follow-up.
-Seizure may be the first sign of febrile illness in half of the patients, that is, the family may encounter a seizure without noticing the fever. The point I want to emphasize here is that the febrile seizure does not have to be at 39-40 degrees, that is, your child may have a seizure before you even realize his temperature (during the rapidly rising period).
If your child has a febrile seizure. The biggest fears of families are that the child will suffer a lot of harm during the seizure and that their child may have a seizure again with every febrile illness, and this may cause fever phobia in the parents. They may want to use paracetamol or ibuprofen alternately in the child's slightest fever, but even this approach may not prevent the development of febrile seizures.
Another fear of families is that their child's brain will be damaged due to these seizures; There is no evidence in studies that any neurological or developmental problems occur in children with recurrent febrile seizures.
Finally, the main point of the article is I would like to point out that febrile seizures are not very rare among children. If your child has had it once and there is a history of this in the family (if it has been seen in parents and siblings), yes, the probability of having it again is slightly higher. The risk of febrile seizures is not only in very high fever degrees; seizures can also occur in the first period when the fever is not noticed.
It is very normal for the family to get nervous when a febrile illness begins in a child who has previously had a febrile seizure. Following the fever, controlling it with medication when it may rise rapidly, reducing the child's clothing, washing it with warm or normal bath water, including the head, and allowing the water to evaporate from the skin without drying are the steps that should be taken.
Let me also point out here that sometimes Children's hands and feet become cold, small tremors begin, they may express that they are cold, and excessive warmth is felt in the body and head, and the fever will just rise. If you evaluate this period as the child's fever is low and cold and you thicken the top, you will see the fever rise rapidly. If you understand the body's efforts to raise the fever, give it medicine and put it in the bath (-please do not let the bath water be at a temperature that will make you shiver), you can see that the tremors stop after a certain period of time, the circulation of the hands and feet returns to normal, and the fever decreases.
If your child is having a seizure with or without fever, try to stay calm, lay him on his side, if there is a piece of food in his mouth, take it out so that it does not go into his windpipe, stabilize his hand and arm so that he does not hit and break it. It is important that the airway is open so that he can breathe. When the seizure ends within minutes, undress him and take him to the nearest emergency room while his temperature decreases.
I wish all mothers and fathers and their children peaceful days without health concerns.
Read: 0
