Your child twitches and cramps, goes pale and gets blue lips. A febrile seizure can be frightening, but parents should try to stay calm, doctors say.
If it’s your child’s first febrile seizure, you should call the local emergency number, advises the Cologne-based Professional Association of Paediatricians (BVKJ). After the seizure subsides and before a doctor arrives, you should place your child on his or her side on a stable surface. By no means should you shake the child.
A simple febrile seizure normally lasts from a few seconds to 15 minutes and has no lasting effects. After an hour or two, the child typically will have recovered fully, the BVKJ says.
Complex febrile seizures, which last longer, are rare, the paediatric group says, adding that febrile seizures caused by meningitis are extremely rare. But to rule out this serious infection, the child should be examined by a doctor after the episode.
Most simple febrile seizures occur in children between six months and 5 years of age. Cramping usually starts when their body temperature rises above 38 degrees Celsius, particularly if the fever rises rapidly. Simple febrile seizures occur, for example, in connection with gastrointestinal infections, upper respiratory infections, influenza and roseola. – dpa
