My little brothers experience of Convulsions. (Febrile Convulsions)

Member Name: stephbond89

Product:	Febrile Convulsions
Date:	03/09/09 (27 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: They do grow out of it normally with little or no damage in their adult lives.

Disadvantages: Horrible, scary for both parties, frustrating.

Ferbrile Convulsions is a fit caused by the body temperature, which usually happens in children aged between 6 months and 3 years old. Ferbrile convulsions are more common in boys than girls. They are brought on by a sudden rise in body temperature rather than an on going fever, meaning it can be difficult to know when they are going to strike.
The actual cause of the ferbrile convulsions is still unknown, which makes them even worse for the families when they happen to their children.

My little brother had these when he was younger, he is now 13, and they stopped a very long time ago now, I think the last time he had one was before he started primary school, or during his first year of primary school.

I was only young when they used to happen, but I remember quite vividly the convulsions happening, they are very much like epileptic fits in the way they happen. With my brother, Jack, his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he would fit. They didn't happen all that often, but when they did they were quite serious and usually resulted in a hospital trip.

There are two kinds of ferbrile convulsion, a simple convulsion and a complex convulsion. The simple convulsion is when the child has a fit which lasts less than 15 minutes and they do not occur again within the next 24 hours, they affect the whole of the body, whereas the complex are characterized by a longer fitting period, which occur more frequently and tend to be focused on one part of the body. The simple convulsions tend to be less serious, as the children "out grow" them normally by school starting age, and are less likely to induce brain injury or the chance of epilepsy in the childs adult future.

The type my brother had were, I think, the simple kind, but this by no means is anything like "simple".

The first time it happened was when my brother was very young, probably around 1yr-18 months old, my mum and dad had no idea what was happening, and called for an ambulance, it took the doctors months to find out what was happening with him, and to work out what he was having, he had been refered to Alder Hay childrens hospital in Liverpool, but was allowed home, and we were given a fact sheet to tell us what to do when he had the fits. They thought it may be something to do with his blood sugar and tested for diabetes, but there was no connection. And to this day we don't know what was causing the convulsions, it was a horrible time and terrifying when you didn't know what it was. We had to watch his temperature and were told to keep his blood sugar level up to try and stop the fits from coming on.

The most terrifying time anything happened was when we were at our touring caravan which we used to have in Morecambe, we had gone away for a few days like normal, and got up one morning. Jack was still asleep which was weird as he was only about 3 years old, he would normally have been up at 7am jumping around and driving my mum and dad crazy, but he was still sleeping.

By the time it got to around 9am my mum and dad thought something was getting very strange and went to check on him, on trying to wake him they couldn't and realised he had slipped into a coma. Luckily there was an ex nurse on the site who my family knew, and she checked him over and told us to get him to a hospital. Luckily he was brought out of the coma within a couple of hours and was back to his normal little self. More tests ensued but there were still no results and he was sent home.

To be honest, those are the two main times which I remember the fits happening so much, and it wasn't long after that coma that they stopped completely. His school had to have a letter to keep an eye on him so they knew what to do if he had a fit whilst there, but he didn't have them again after that.

He now is a happy 13 year old, he doesn't have any brain damage or anything else which was caused by the convulsions, so we were one of the lucky ones, he has grown into a healthy young man, and is great.

What I would like to say to anybody out there who has a child who has these convulsions, I know how frustrating it is having someone in the family who has these when the doctors don't seem to know what to do to stop them from happening. There are anticonvulsion pills which can be taken, which I don't think were available 10 years ago when my brother had the fits. And if your not given these, then ask about them. They are scary things, but the thing to remember is just to be calm and remember most fits last less than 5 minutes and rarely last up to 15 minutes. As I said my brother stopped having the convulsions when he started primary school, if not before then, and so it's good to know that children do normally grow out of the convulsions with no problems in their adult lives.

NB: Something I would like to add is that as a child when my baby brother went into his coma, it was the most terrifying thing I have ever been through, forget GCSEs, forget A Levels forget getting married, that was the scariest time I have ever had, I thought my baby brother was dead, or dying, I was only about 10 at the time, and I had no clue what was happening, although my mum and dad tried to explain what had happened I didn't understand. And I remember just sitting and crying to myself worrying about him. (I may have argued and fought with him but he was my little brother and now one of my closest friends and I loved him!) It's very important for parents to explain what is happening to their sibling, when I was younger my mum and dad did try and explain, and that did make it better in a way as I was told he was going to be ok. It's obviously hard when your worried so much about your child who has fitted and lying in a hospital bed, but do try and explain this to other siblings and they will be terrified at what is happening. :)

Summary: Your not alone in dealing with this problem, there are forums and help centres to talk to!