Febrile seizure

• Febrile convulsions are seizures triggered by fever.
• About 3 in 100 children suffer such a seizure.
• They typically occur between the age of six months and six years.
• There is a genetic predisposition and thus a familial accumulation.
• A febrile convulsion is not an epileptic seizure.
• Febrile convulsions look very threatening, but are usually harmless.
• Children who have suffered febrile convulsions do not later show any impairment in their psychomotor development, school performance or behaviour.

• Febrile convulsions often occur in the first few hours after the onset of a fever. In a quarter of cases, the fever is only noticed during the seizure. However, they can also occur at any time during a febrile illness.
• Affected children become unconscious, their arms and legs stiffen, their muscles twitch, their eyes roll and their face colour may be blue, red or pale. The seizures usually last less than five minutes and end on their own. After the seizure, the children are drowsy.
• A complicated febrile seizure is when the seizure lasts longer than 15 minutes, several seizures occur in 24 hours, only one side of the body is affected or there are signs of paralysis after the seizure.

• Keep calm!
• Protect your child from objects that could injure them.
• Do not shake your child, do not hold him or her, place him or her on his or her side.
• Do not try to put anything in the child's mouth (risk of swallowing).
• Look at the clock to estimate the duration of the seizure.
• If you have already received emergency medication from the paediatrician: If the seizure lasts longer than three minutes, give the emergency medication. It is administered into the anus in the same way as a suppository. In order to prevent the medication from leaking out, the buttocks of infants and small children should then be held for approx. 30 seconds.
• If the febrile convulsion does not end five minutes after the emergency medication has been administered, call the ambulance on 144.
• In addition, the fever should be lowered with fever suppositories.
• After every febrile seizure, the child should be examined by a doctor to determine the cause of the fever.

Fever cramps are most frequently triggered by febrile states in the context of viral infections, e.g. coughs, colds, middle ear infections, stomach/intestinal flu. The exact mechanisms are still unclear.

• It gives none Measures, the Febrile convulsions safe prevent.
  
• One preventive Effect antipyretic Medication and other Measures is not proven.