YOUR CHILD’S HEALTH CARE/DISORDERS OF THE BRAIN AND SPINAL CORD: CONVULSIONS TREATMENT AND PREVENTION
The long-term treatment of general convulsions will depend on their cause and severity.
A febrile convulsion usually lasts only a few minutes, and almost always stops by itself before any treatment is given. If the seizure is prolonged, the child is taken to the doctor or hospital where medication is given (intravenously or rectally) to stop the seizure. It is not usually necessary to hospitalise a child following a febrile seizure, unless there is concern about the condition which caused the fever (such as pneumonia or meningitis). Generally, the child is assessed, the underlying condition treated, and the child is sent home.
When to see your doctor
• if it is your child’s first convulsion;
• if your child has several convulsions;
• if convulsions occur often.
Prevention
To prevent recurrences of febrile convulsions, you should try to lower your child’s fever (for example, using paracetamol as soon as you become aware of the problem. However, sometimes the seizure will be the first indication of a fever. There is no point at all in giving your child anticonvulsant medication whenever he develops a fever, because it takes several days to build up sufficiently high blood levels of the drug.
If the child has recurrent febrile seizures, your doctor may consider prescribing anticonvulsant medications to be taken on a continual basis for several years to prevent the seizures from occurring. However, this should only be instituted and managed by a paediatrician or paediatric neurologist.
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