Has Your Child Ever Had a Febrille Seizure?

Hey there I am a Pediatric nurse, and from experience these can be very scary. Sometimes kids will keep having them if there fever is high enough. Just try to make sure you keep that fever down, Luke warm bath, alternate Tylenol and Motrin every 3 hours. When he has a seizure like this always turn him to his side keep his hands away from his mouth, try and time his seizure, they can last up to 5 minutes. If it goes close to that then I would call 911 again. Good luck. If you have anymore questions let me know. J.

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Yes my daughter had one at age 1. The only reason I knew what it was was because my nephew had one a few years before. It is important when they are that young to keep the fever under control or they can have another one. I alternate motrin and Tylenol. I hate giving my kids medicine also but when they have a fever you have to keep it down, and that is the only way. My daughter is 26 months now and she has not had a repeat seizure. When she had hers we freaked out and called 911 also, but they said it was normal. It was so scary because she had more seizures in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. I would just get the correct dosage from the doctor and give her Tylenol and motrin. Motrin works faster to get the fever down and tylenol helps to keep it down. I do every 3 hours Tylenol and Motrin and I set my alarm at night if they are sick at night so that I can keep it down and not have to go through that again.

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Hi L.,

I had one of these seizures when I was two years old. I had a fever associated with pneumonia, but my mom had no clue until I cried out in the middle of the night. She touched me and realized I was very sick because I was so hot. By the time she changed my diaper and my dad was calling the hospital, I started seizing. They said to get me in the car and come immediately. It took an ice bath to stop my seizure, and thank goodness they were 6 blocks from the hospital.

Fast forward 46 years, and I've never had another seizure, though I have had fainting spells. I also won't let my fever go above 101. When my own kids get a fever, I'm really attentive. The pediatric nurse is giving you great advice telling you about Tylenol, Motrin, Tylenol. Back when the liquid Motrin was prescription only, I called it my "liquid gold". My doctor told me that children have a temperature threshold - and some kids' thresholds are lower than others. My older son got chicken pox when he was 13 months old and his shot up to 104.7 - I doubt if I've ever been that frightened. By the time I got him to the doctor, it had come down thanks to the Motrin. So I'm grateful he didn't repeat his mom's history.
Good luck, and just watch her closely when she gets sick. Always warn a babysitter. If this continues, go to an epilepsy specialist to rule out that problem. (Nowadays, this can be controlled for children so much better than before.)

All my best,
D.

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L., when I worked as a nanny a little girl that I watched had these EVERY TIME her fever would get out of control.They could never let it get too high(medicine, cold baths, cold wash clothes on the head)Their family friend had a son who had these seizures often too, well one morning they found him and he was not the same. Doctors said that his fever got way too high at night and he must've suffered a really bad seizure ,it "fried" his brain.It was so sad to see that little guy, left with brain damage because of a stupid fever. I know it does not happen to every child,but .....it did to him.
Since then I always make sure my kids have medicine, even at night I get up to give it to them when they are sick.

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Hi, i can't imagine how scared you were! My nephew had several of these febrile seizures. He went to the ER several times because of them. My sister was told that they are common up til age 5 and that, while TREMEDOUSLY scary, they are harmless.

I know that doens't help a lot, but maybe it will set your mind a little more at ease to knwo that it happened to someone else :) I HOPE IT NEVER HAPPENS AGAIN!!!

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Hi L.

My child had a febrile seizure. Lasted 4 minutes and scared me to death! We are taught that a fever is a good thing and is supposed to help the body fight the infection. This is true, but with some kids their fever spikes. My child was 11 months old when this happened. Since then, any fever he gets is monitored very closely and he is given tylenol around the clock. He has not had any more febrile seizures. After the incident he did have a few, very minor petite mal sezuires, but they have also stopped. Don't beat your self up about it, you had no way of knowing it would happen. I have one kid that has fevers and I have never given him anything for them and he gets over the illness just fine and now I have one that is prone to seizures, so I monitor him very closely when he is sick or teething.
J.

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My son who was about two at the time had one as well. It was very scary. Like you I had never heard of them and called his doc in the middle of the night. He informed me it was ok to have them as long as it didn't last to long. He has had them again when he gets a high fever. So when ever he has a high fever he sleeps with me. My son doesn't get sick often but when he does it's severe. I do give him meds when needed. The times he has had the seizures it was combined with throwing up and the tylnol never kicked in, so he needed suppostories to keep his fever down.

The doc did tell me every child is different and can have one of these seizures at even the mildest of temputure. If I'm not mistaken if they get it once they are more likly to have more, till they grow out of it.

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L.,
My daughter has had one befrille seizure in her life. My story is she was having ear infections alot. She had 3 in a row and was just finishing that night the last dose of antibotics. She woke me up making a funny noise across the hall from my bedroom. I went in to pick her up and she seemed to act different. I could tell she was feverish and took her into the kitchen to get tylenol and some water. She took the tylenol ok and then her eyes rolled back in her head and she started to jerk. I hollard for my husband and knew she was having a seizure. He held her as I called dr. she was breathing ok but I was very concerned since this had never happend to my other children. Dr. told me to take her to ER and let them check her out. Her fever was 103. She had a raging ear infection again. She was fine and never had another seizure. She did outgrow it as they said she would. Still it is very scary for a mom to see her child go though this and feel so helpless. I was hysterical until it stopped and then she was back to normal. We ended up having tubes etc.

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