Child seizures are among the most frightening things to witness. The fear is sharpest when you cannot tell whether stepping in will help or harm. Some of what feels like the natural response during a seizure can make it more dangerous. The difference between getting those minutes right and getting them wrong is a calm, correct response and a clear sense of when a seizure becomes a medical emergency.
What is a Seizure and What Are the Symptoms of a Seizure?
A seizure is a sudden burst of abnormal electrical activity in the brain. During a seizure, the signals the brain uses to control movement, sensation, and awareness are briefly disrupted. When a child has a seizure, they may stiffen, jerk, stare blankly, or lose awareness of their surroundings, and what happens depends on which part of the brain the seizure starts in. A seizure may last only a few seconds or stretch to a couple of minutes, and most child seizures end on their own.
Symptoms of a seizure depend on the type, and child seizures can look very different from one another. Before a seizure starts, some children feel a warning such as a strange taste or smell, a rising feeling in the stomach, or sudden fear. During one, a child may lose control of their bladder or bowels, and their lips can turn bluish if breathing briefly pauses. Afterwards, many children are confused and drowsy, and have no memory of the seizure.
Types of Seizures
Doctors sort seizures by where in the brain they begin. Focal seizures start in one part of the brain, while generalised seizures involve both sides at once. What you see and how long it lasts depend on the seizure type. The main types of child seizures include the following:
- Tonic-clonic seizure: the convulsive seizures most people picture. The body stiffens, then the arms and legs jerk, and the child loses consciousness and may fall.
- Absence seizure: a few seconds of blank staring with no response, often mistaken for daydreaming. These occur more in children than adults.
- Myoclonic seizures: quick, shock-like jerks of the arms or legs, sometimes in short runs.
- Atonic seizures: a sudden loss of muscle tone that can make a child go limp or fall.
- Focal seizure: the child may stay aware during focal aware seizures or lose awareness, and may make repeated movements or report odd sensations.
What Causes Seizures in Children?
Many child seizures have a clear outside trigger; these are called provoked seizures. The most common cause of seizures in young children is a high fever.
Febrile seizures occur in roughly 3 in 100 children between six months and six years of age, usually as a temperature climbs quickly. Other common seizure triggers include infections such as meningitis, a head injury, very low blood sugar, or a drop in oxygen. There can also be no clear trigger.
What is Epilepsy in Children?
Epilepsy is when child seizures keep returning on their own, with no outside cause to set them off. These are known as epileptic seizures.
In many children, no reason for it is ever found. When there is one, it is often genetic or rooted in how the brain formed before birth. Genetic does not always mean inherited; the change can be new in the child, with no epilepsy anywhere else in the family.
One seizure does not make it epilepsy. The condition is diagnosed only after two or more unprovoked seizures. Most children with epilepsy have their seizures controlled with daily medicine, and many grow out of it as they get older.
First Aid for a Child Seizure
The aim during a child seizure is to stop the child from getting hurt.
- Move any hard or sharp objects away from the child, and put something soft and flat under their head.
- Do not hold the child down or put anything in their mouth.
- Note the time the seizure starts.
- When their jerking stops, roll the child onto their side.
- Stay with the child and reassure them in a calm voice until they are fully awake.
Call an ambulance on Triple Zero (000) if:
- it is the child’s first seizure
- the seizure lasts more than five minutes
- one seizure starts before the child has woken from the last
- the child does not wake after the jerking stops
- the child struggles to breathe or stays blue around the lips
- the child is hurt during the seizure
- the seizure happens in water
Childcare First Aid Training for Seizure Response
A child’s seizure stays frightening to watch, but knowing what to do replaces helplessness with action. The calmer you are, the safer your child is. Child seizures happen fast, but a practised response holds under pressure. In childcare first aid training, you work through a seizure on a manikin with an instructor, until the right moves come without thought. A few hours in childcare first aid training mean you can step in for the child in front of you the moment they seize.
FAQs
Are Seizures Painful?
No. A child who loses consciousness during a seizure feels nothing while it happens unless they injure themselves while convulsing. Afterwards, sore muscles, a headache, or a bitten tongue are common.
Can a Seizure Cause Brain Damage?
No. Even a long seizure almost never causes lasting harm, and a brief one poses no risk of brain damage. Children who have seizures grow and develop the same as other children.
Can a Child Who Has Seizures Swim Safely?
Yes, as long as an adult who knows what to do stays with them in and around water. The same applies to baths: never leave a young child in one alone.
