Febrile Seizures & the ER

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We have something called 'after hours pediatrician' in our area, as well as urgent care clinics. The after hours pedi is just like a regular dr. office, and the urgent care is like a step down from emergency. Expense wise, perhaps they might be another option if you have them in your area. Dawn's got some great ideas - I'd check into that stuff as well.

Hugs!

Bless your heart, mama. What a scary time for you to be going through!

My kids didn't have them, but I had one as a 2 year old with pneumonia, and I know the story from my mom. I know you are being told when and when not to go to the hospital, but what I am wondering is what you have been told to try in order to keep them from happening in the first place.

Have you ascertained what the temp threshold for your son is that triggers the seizure? I would try hard to know that and treat him aggressively to prevent it. Lukewarm water in the bath, pouring water over his head (never cool enough to make him shiver - that actually heats his body up). Tylenol followed with Advil followed by Tylenol (the doctor can tell you exactly how to do this and the exact dosage for his weight and age) and other ways to keep a fever down. (You should find out what they all are and put them in your "arsenal".)

Have you taken him to a pediatric neurologist? I would want to cover that base since he is passing out after the seizure. I would want to make sure that the ER docs have not missed something, thinking that these are ONLY febrile seizures and nothing else. What if it were actually grand mal seizures and you hadn't yet recognized a petite mal seizure? That would be epilepsy masking as a febrile seizure. Farfetched maybe, but I'd want to rule that out with a specialist.

I feel for you - I really do. I hope he is okay and that you get through this with him "growing out of them".

All my best,
Dawn

I know how scary it is. The best way to support your child is to just be there physically and emotionally when they come back from the seizure. The way I handled it was when it happened, I had 911 ready on the phone so I could call if it lasted too long. Other wise, I would sit wherever he was and help that way. Have a stopwatch handy and take time to breath yourself and remember your child is ok and will get through this. GL

I have also been told the 5 minute rule. Honestly, I hate sitting in hospital ER's - it takes forever, so if one is under 5 minutes, i'm pretty thankful and don't bother going into the ER. (Although my attitude may come off pretty cavalier, during those 5 minutes I am absolutely sick to my stomach and freaking out). However, my daughter has atypical seizures and can last up to 30 minutes if i don't get anti-seizure meds into her. So, more times than not we do end up in the ER.

Have you had his blood sugar checked? With a fasting morning check but also- with a glucose tolerance test? There are many children with blood sugar disregulation that go undiagnosed because people do not recognize the sublte signs. Blood sugar issues CAN cause seizures.
Can I ask, are there any other symptoms , recurring, that your child has, that you think might be out of the ordinary but never mentioned to the doc, ?

There are adrenal and electrolyte issues that can cause them too.

I am a 12 yr. medical researcher, focused in endocrine disorders.

Gail

They are scarey but benign. My advice would be if you think he is getting sick give him some Motrin or Tylenol to possibly prevent one. It is hard to watch but less traumatic for all to stay home. If out of the ordinary by all means take him.

My son luckily had only 1 febrile seizure (that we know of). Afterwards you find out that 5% of toddlers have at least one and the risk of having a second goes up if you've had the first. That would have been a good thing to know about in the baby books. Afterwards we were advised to make sure we kept his fevers under control and to try to keep any of the meds from wearing off during the peak periods (to avoid the sudden increases or decreases). My son also had a fever syndrome where he got a fever with really no other symptoms every ~6 weeks that lasted for 3-10 days. These fevers only were kept at about 101 with alternating tylenol (every 4 hours) and motrin (every 6 hours). My OB said her son had them too but she actually had a specific shot (something like an EPI pen) to give him to kick him out of the seizure as his lasted more than 5 minutes and happened frequently

what is causing the seizures?? has he been checked for epilepsy or diabetes?

None of my children have suffered from ANY type of seizure. I can understand how frightening it would be to see my child have a seizure. All I can say is that you need to find out what is causing them.

If more than one doctor is telling you "more than 5 minutes" then listen and follow that. If the pediatrician is saying EVERY SINGLE ONE - then you need to have the doctor's talk to each other and get on the same page so Oliver's care is documented and you can move forward trying to figure out what is causing the seizures.

Good luck.

Is he passing out after the seizure or just falling asleep. My daughter would pass out during the seizure then open her eyes for a minute or so then fall right to sleep, hard to awaken. Her body was so tired from the seizure.

Maybe your ped is just being overly cautious. I agree that you don't need to the ER unless it's an unusual one. I also agree to try and keep those fevers down to try and keep them from happening.

My daughter had a few of those when she was between 2 and 5. Wow, I can remember how unbelievably scary it was. I was alone with the two kids for the first one and called 911. I knew what it was, thankfully, so I tried to put her in the tub to cool her, but she kept seizing and passed out. I can still remember them trying to bring her back. I had my baby son to worry about at the same time and we all rushed to the hospital. Thankfully they let me ride in the ambulance and even hooked up my son's carseat into the ambulance so he could ride safely. Mind you, they did all of this automatically without me having to do anything but worry about my daughter and stay with her. Given the fact that she passed out, I was very nervous about the possibility of it happening again. I was also very worried about what it could do to harm her long-term. Like you, I was also told to not rush in unless it lasted a while. So, we were told to treat any sickness as if she might get a fever. I went from a mom who hardly ever gave meds to her, to giving her preventative advil and tylenol and cool clothes even when she barely had a fever. We were also told that the seizures are caused by a quick spike in temperature...either going up too fast or cooling off too fast. So, they advised that we make sure she didn't get a fever if we could help it.

Anyway, as much as we tried, she did have a few more. One day she fell off the couch and we realized it was her having a seizure. We stayed with her and my husband was home so he helped me take her to our regular doctor. They made sure she was okay.

With the first one, it was really dramatic though. I wouldn't hesitate to call 911 if it's like the one your son had. Trust your instincts. I'm sorry you are going through this. The good news is, they go away! After age 6 I've was told. My daughter didn't have anymore after age 5! Such relief.

My kids have never had them, I have only heard of them. I'm guessing the ER docs. are probably correct but I know that there is NO WAY I would be able to watch either of my girls have a seizure for any length of time let alone 5 minutes, without calling 911. Our dog has seizures that last mabey 2 minutes at the most and then he jumps up and is fine but even that freaks me out.

My youngest had one last November when he was 2. My older two kids had never had one, so I had no idea what it was. Since he didn't seem to be sick before it happened, I thought he had gotten into something poisonous and was dying. I can't even describe the terror I felt. We called 911 because he was passed out and lifeless. Just as the paramedics arrived, he started coming around. They noticed right away that he was hot. They said the fever spiking so fast out of nowhere is what caused the seizure. He kept passing out while they were there, so they took us in to the ER in the ambulance.

If I brought my daughter in to the ER every time she has a seizure, it would be completely ridiculous. Her eyes flutter and she tilts her head... it looks like she's spacing out. There are no convulsions. Sometimes she has gelastic seizures which appear like she's laughing at nothing. They last anywhere from 30-60 seconds, typically, although she's had a couple that went to nearly two minutes. Afterward, she's tired.

The only harm they ever did her was losing class time because it happened so often. We have her on daily seizure med and adjust them only when it appears they're not working as well as they should which only happens after she's had an impressive growth spurt.

We had to start paying attention and keeping a journal. We figured out what her triggers are: strobe lighting, over-tiredness, low blood sugar, dehydration. We kept track of the weather and her activities. We kept track of her diet. Sometimes no apparent reason at all. She also gets migraines and has Autism, so she had a 75% chance of having seizure disorder on top of there being a family history on her daddy's side of the family.

Since your child's seizures are not a one-off, it's time to see a pediatric neurologist. They'll do a full physical and likely recommend a CAT scan. They'll take a family history too. If not a CAT scan, then an EEG with the electrodes. Part of it would be done while awake and part of it done while sleeping.

Please make sure you get to a pediatric neurologist. Your pediatrician isn't equipped to handle this, and the emergency room can't do much if anything unless your son is having gran mal seizures.

Have you seen a neurologist? This many febrile seizures does not strike me as normal. I'm not a doctor but none of my kids has ever had a seizure. One of my brother has a seizure disorder - different from febrile seizures but if I were you, I would want my child seen by a neurologist.