Many parents don’t know anything about febrile seizures, and they can get very scared when they suddenly see one. In general, a seizure is a term that refers to a sudden malfunction in the brain that causes someone to convulse or have a temporary disturbance of normal brain function.
Sometimes, for children under five, they can have a febrile seizure if they have a fever. This is usually in situations where the fever is above 100.4 degrees F, or 38 degrees C. These seizures can be incredibly scary for parents to witness, but they are usually quite brief and almost never life-threatening. They don’t indicate any type of a long term problem, unless the fever is associated with a serious infection such as meningitis.
Certainly, while terrifying to the parents, these seizures are not dangerous to the child’s brain or nervous system. Most doctors say that the condition will go away by the time the child is around five. What the condition does mean, however, for parents is that they should always closely monitor the child’s fever and make sure that it doesn’t get to the critical point. Fevers can be quickly lowered by placing the child in a cool bathtub and by using cold washcloths. Parents should, of course, also give the child fever-reducing medicine, but this will often take 20 minutes or so to work.
