Febrile Seizures

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Febrile Seizures: What Every Parent Should Know

1. What is a febrile seizure?

Febrile convulsions (FC) or seizures (FS) are clonic or tonic-clonic seizures that most often occur in infancy or childhood, mainly occurring between four months and six years of age, with fever but without evidence of intracranial infection, antecedent epilepsy, or other definable cause. That is why they are often referred to as "fever seizures" or "febrile seizures." Most of the time when children have a seizure, or a convulsion, it's caused by fevers with a rectal temperature greater than 102 degrees F. Most febrile seizures occur during the first day of a child's fever. They occur in 1-5% of all children, and therefore febrile convulsions have the highest incidence of any childhood neurological disease. They are very frightening, but they are not as dangerous as they may appear. Nearly 80 percent of parents think that their child undergoing a seizure is dying or already dead. The controversy that the best management is parental support and education has not been substantiated. Rather, recent findings show that the parents of an affected child continue to be anxious, even after speaking with physicians, viewing videotapes, and reading educational materials, and there is often still family disruption. Parents and many physicians are sometimes driven to try to prevent seizures because of unfounded fears. Seizures do not beget seizures, and in humans there is no solid evidence of "kindling," which is seen in an experimental model in animals. The majority of children with febrile seizures have.

There have been families identified where each had multiple members affected by febrile convulsions over two or more generations. In order to identify the gene(s) for FC/FS a study was initiated by a genome screen with a panel of micro satellite markers spaced at 20 cM. Blood samples are collecting from families in which 2 siblings have had febrile seizures. Blood samples from both siblings and the biological parents are also required. Dr. R McLachlan is conducting this work in collaboration with The University of Western Ontario.

2. How serious are febrile seizures?

Usually, a child who has had a febrile seizure does not need to be hospitalized and may not need x-rays or a brain wave test. Your child may only need to be seen by your family doctor so the cause of the fever can be found.

Although they can be frightening to parents, the vast majority of febrile seizures are harmless.

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