# Yikes, My three year old has a  Febrile Seizure!!?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yikes-my-three-year-old-has-a-febrile-seizure/156354>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [February 20, 2003, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yikes-my-three-year-old-has-a-febrile-seizure/156354 "2003-02-20T17:16:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\
**Post date:** [February 21, 2003, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yikes-my-three-year-old-has-a-febrile-seizure/156354/21 "2003-02-21T16:56:28Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by elfkin477 \*  
> \*\*No, it’s only true for epileptic seiziures - febrile seizures are effected only by high temps, a not history of having them before(meaning they can be wholey prevented if you get a fever down more quickly in the future). We had to have a workshop about them last year when I worked with special ed preschool/k kids. Febrile seizures have different causes that “normal” ones and aren’t an indicator that a child is likely to have them again -as long as their temps are properly managed when sick- and do not make a person more likely to develop epilepsy. \*\*

You need to get a new workshop provider, since the only thing they got right was “caused by high temps,” although even that is debatable as some children (including my son) “high” can be pretty low (my son had his last seizure when his fever was under 100):

Children who have febrile seizures have an increased chance of turning out to be epileptic if they have more than one incident or meet some other criteria (multiple incidents - multiple seizures in a 24 hour period - low temperture with seizure - long seizures - certain convulsion patterns) – its small, but its there (about 2% of kids with febrile seizures will be epileptic - the general population has an incidence of about 1%).

If you’ve had one, you are more likely to have another than someone who has never had one (4% in the general population - but 30% chance of reoccurance. Another strange fact - 10% of children in Japan have them).

They cannot be wholly prevented by keeping the temp down - because they are often triggered by the temp spiking quickly. My son’s second set were triggered because his temp went from normal to 104 in a matter of minutes - too fast for me to notice and catch it - too fast for Motrin to take effect anyway. In fact the link below says “If a child has a fever most parents will use fever-lowering drugs such as acetominophen or ibuprofen to make the child more comfortable, although there are no studies that prove that this will reduce the risk of a seizure.”

The link below contains cites or links to cites for most of the rest of this post as well (the Japan thing isn’t in there - I’d have to really dig for that one again).

[http://www.ninds.nih.gov/health\_and\_medical/pubs/febrile\_seizures.htm](http://www.ninds.nih.gov/health_and_medical/pubs/febrile_seizures.htm)

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**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\
**Post date:** [February 22, 2003, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yikes-my-three-year-old-has-a-febrile-seizure/156354/22 "2003-02-22T05:49:46Z")

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It’s the scariest normal thing you’ll ever witness. That’s what my doctor told me and he was right.

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