Febrile Seizures - Houston,TX

I was told that they don't grow out of them until they are about 6 years old. I had never heard of this until my son had one at 1. Scared me to death. I was told fevers cause him to have them, not the temp of the environment.

My oldest son had a couple of these. The first was when he was 18 months. He would often get high fevers, by which I mean it was not unusual for him to get to 106 and was even higher when he went to the ER the first time. It happens when they get a fever that rises rapidly. That is why it may happen some times and not others. When he got a fever and did not seize it was because his temp did not go up quickly. So, it should not be influenced by the weather, just by how fast the fever goes up. It can even happen with lower fevers if it happens rapidly. My son grew out of them and he is now 15 years old and had no lasting influences from it. The doc told us that even though it is scary, the febrille seizures won't cause damage and in a child 106 is very different than an adult having that high of a temp. I know is is super scary, but eventually they should go away as he gets older.

I don't think the temp. change should be a problem. Febrile seizures are often hereditary & are usually triggered not by the high degree, but because of how quickly the child's temp rises. So, just be vigilant when he's coming down with something. And although these are scary to witness, it's rare to have long-term effects from them.

Febrile seizures are just associates with fevers and tend to occur only while the child is quite young due to his/her bodies inability to "handle" a fever/sudden change in the internal body temperature. The child tends to outgrow it as the body develops.

However, our daughter also was originally diagnosed with febrile seizures and told she would outgrow them by age of 2. When she was still having them at age 3, we brought it up again with the pediatrician and he sent her to a neurologist. An EEG confirmed seizure disorder (formerly known as epilepsy). The neurologist said that if there are more than 2 sieuzres, an EEG should be perfomred since not likely febrile seizures but instead some type of seizure disorder.

The good news is she was on medication for a handful of years and then outgrew it and is seizure free and off meds for the past 5 years+. Also, seizure do not harm the child unless the child's brain is unable to make the seizure stop after a period of time or if repeated seizures occur one right after the other. The bigger concern with seizures is the possible injuries from falling, hitting the head, etc when the seizure occurs. Also good to know is that siezures genearlly occur when child is most tired so if there is a seizure disorder the child may be having more sieuzres than you know especially at night right after putting child to bed or at nap time. Good luck. PS Great place to get this checked out is neurologists at Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago. We saw Dr Cynthia Stack.

I don't know much about febrile seizures, you can probably find good info on the internet. I am pretty sure that moving to a warmer climate will not cause him to have more seizures - "febrile" means "fever" and the seizures are triggered by brain temperature,not ambient air temperature. Ask you pediatrician for some literature on the seizures so that you can feel more confident about your choices.

L.,

Both my boys, ages 12 and 4 have gone through Febrile seizures. My first son started having them at 18 months. He had several and they are quite scary, but they were always brought on when he was sick. The hot temperature never bothered either one of them. He did outgrow them by age 5. Whenever he would get sick, I was always vigilant about giving him medicine (over the counter Motrin and Tylenol every 3 hours). We would alternate since that's what the doctor told us to do. We would always give the Motrin first as Tylenol does not reduce a fever quickly with my children. My middle child, daughter, never suffered from seizures, but now my third child does. Whenever he gets sick or we think he is sick, we take his temp and start the Motrin/Tylenol. We had to call 911 for him twice and it is scary to watch your child go through it. also, for us it is hard with our second son since he is always playing even if sick. Whereas my first son, he would always lay around when he was not feeling well.

Hope this information helps!

L.

Check with your ped but have you considered taking him to a neurologist? We are going through something similar right now but we are not 100% positive it is always fever triggered, pretty sure but not 100%. We are working with a neurologist at Children's Memorial who is really good.