What to know about febrile seizures

What is a febrile seizure? It’s a seizure that generally happens to children under age 2 who are sick with a fever, but one that can occur up to age 6, according to doctors.

“The thought is it’s not necessarily the height of the fever, but the rate of rise of the child’s temperature that causes the febrile seizure,” said Dr. Adam Wos, medical director of the emergency department at John T. Mather Memorial Hospital in Port Jefferson, N.Y. “In the vast majority of cases, they are benign.”

The child’s body will tighten up and shake, Wos says. While that usually lasts two minutes or less, for parents the convulsing is terrifying, Wos said. “The time that your child is seizing seems like an eternity,” he said.

Dr. Gabrielle Chassagne, pediatric epilepsy director at Winthrop-University Hospital in Mineola, N.Y., emphasizes that having a febrile seizure doesn’t mean a child has or will develop epilepsy. “It’s very different from an epileptic seizure, where the brain is predisposed to having seizures for other reasons,” she said.

During a seizure, parents should lie the child on his side, and shouldn’t place anything in the child’s mouth, both Wos and Chassagne said. The child may drool because she can’t swallow while seizing, they said.

It’s never a bad idea to call 911, the doctors said. The child should be evaluated by medical professionals to determine the source of the fever and treat it if necessary, Wos said.