Febrile Seizure in My 17 Month Old

My son has had 3 febrile seizures and I completely understand how terrifying it is to see you child go through this. My son had one at 12 months, 15 months and 18 months. He is now 24 months and thank God has not had another one. He did not have 3 back to back and I hope you don't have to go through this again. We ended up seeing a neurologist to be sure there wasn't something else going on and the neurologist did not seem concerned. We were told this is hereditary and found out my husband's cousin suffered these as well.
However whenever he gets a fever, I have to take it very seriously and act immediately. We found the best thing to do was as soon as he had the slight temperature, we gave him suppositories. These were the most effective in bringing down the temp. We also strip him to only his diaper and try to give him popsicles, juice anything to hydrate him and cool him off. The seizures happen so fast, it is best to be as aggressive as possible with the medicine. The second seizure we had we were on an airplane...terrible! I hope this helps you and I understand exactly what you are going through! It definitely makes you count your blessings!

1 mom found this helpful

Our son also had several febrile seizures and believe me they are extremely scary to see. The best thing to do is to prevent the fever from getting high. In my sons case anything 99 degrees or above we began treating with both motrin and tylenol. His febrile seizures always seemed to happen when the fever was coming back down so we always tried to prevent it from getting over 100. Also, I began my son on multivitamins and when he seems to be coming down with something I would give him extra vitamin C. Finally at the age of 7 he had his tonsils and adenoids removed and he hasn't had a problem since and he has had several fevers since then. I pray that your child does outgrow them and totally know how scary it is.

We went the "atypical" route too. My son had his FIRST febrile seizure at 7, and had 2 in one night, with a 3 day stay in a children's hospital while they ran tests. Everything was fine. About a year later, he had ANOTHER seizure. This time, no hospitalization, just tests again. And then again a year after that. So 3 instances all WELL past the time they are supposed to have outgrown them. After that, he's never had one again, and he's now 26. It's very very scary, but one doctor explained to me "it's like throwing a breaker in the brain - everything just re-sets and he's fine". He assured me that it isn't hurting him, and after the first seizure I never had that panicked moment again. I suggest to just be diligent with motrin and tylenol when he gets a fever. Alternate every 2 hours to keep it down.

M. A,
My daughter has had 4 febrile seizures. It started when she was 8 months old, and she had her last one on March 15th. So only 4 in 1.5 yrs, but that's 4 too many for me! Our pedi says it's quite possible she will grow out of this before she is school age, but until then ANYTIME she gets a fever we HAVE to alternate tylenol and motrin! It's so scary to have this happen and we have been in an ambulance 3 times b/c they were longer than the "normal" febrile seizures (one over 20 minutes and the other 2 about 8-10 minutes). Her seizures don't fit their "box" of a febrile seizure perfectly, but they only come on during a fever so they are saying that's what it is! The only thing they really did was observe, take TONZ of tests and prescribe us Diastat in case she has a long one again. So, the only thing I've come across that prevents the seizure is to keep the fever down...and it's not actually how high it gets, it's how quickly the child's fever goes up. Hopefully you will figure something out! Let me know if you get any good advice!!