Febrile Convulsions - any experience?

[julesandweekabeya]

Hi there. My dd is nearly 9months and had what we thought was fit last week - her back went rigid and her right arm bent back on itself - this happened 4 times and then she went blank and was not with us for about 10 minutes. We went to hospital and were told she had had a febrile convulsion which could be due to having had a high temperature.
She seems well in herself now but we have been referred to convulsion clinic as precaution. We have been assured that many young children have this and it is nothing to worry about - is this your experience?

My daughter had one at 2, the most frightening experience imagaginable, we had been visiting, it was snowing so we wrapped her up in her pushchair, hat, coat blanket, trotting along the road, she made a weird noise, her back arched and glazed eyes looked back me..I yanked her out of the pushchair,jumped into the road flagging down some poor driver demanding he took us to Guys..they told me she had a febrile convulsion caused by her having a temperature and me wrapping her up like a parcel, her temp. had risen so quickly he brain could not cope.
From then on when ever she had a temp. I put her in her baby bath filled with tepid water and sponged her down and gave her Calpol when she was actually in the bath and kept sponging til she was cooler, in her groin, under her arms...anything rather than her have another convulsion..hope your little ones fine soon( smile)

there was another thread on this very topic about a week ago! our dd1 also had a febrile convulsion at 8 months, a result of a very high temp ( 41) and inability to regulate her body temperature.
They seem to occur quite a lot in under 1s but most of the time are nothing serious although it looks awful.
Dd1 is now 4 and nothing like it has ever happened since.

It was me who posted last week.

Please go to 'search current messages' 'RachD' 'Febrile convulsion' on '13th Jan' to see my posting.

Apparently it is very common.
Generally children grow out of them aged three.

Please contact me or ask any questions, if I can be of help at all.

It is very common jules, did your dd have a temp?
The reason you have been referred is prob due to a new guideling which has just been released to nhs workers regarding 'first fits'. You and anyone else who witnessed teh fit should go to the clinic, although I'm sure everything will be fine.
It is very frightening to watch but, it usually causes no long term damage and babeis do out grow them as they become aboe to regulate their body temps

I know how you feel, my dd is now 3y 5mths and we went through febrile convulsions for a while, we were told its not the actual temp that causes it, (even though dd was 41.6) but the speed of how the temp goes up, we were referred to Alder Hey childrens hospital in Liverpool which is a long way from where we live, and we were very frightened, the specialists there said dd would grow out of it, and this is whats happening, as she gets older she manages to control her temp better, I did find that calpol on its own was no use but ibuprofen was great, and we could still use calpol inbetween.

One thing I will say that is important is check you are giving trhe right dosage with these medicines with your gp, I didn't realise until my dd was taken in hospital after a convulsion, that her bodyweight was not enough for the age guide, and I had actually given her more medicine than I should.

We had a poorly spell at xmas and I got her weighed again with gp and found that I was "officially" allowed an extra dose in emergencies, but not to do on a regular basis.

I find that illnesses that children can normally cope with will bring temps of 40+ in my dd and its easier to control this at home with medicine, a fan, and tepid water being sponged over her.

Hope this helps.............