ER with febrile seizures - anyone else have these?

Long, long story short, Matthew suddenly blew up a fever yesterday and had a febrile seizure. Anyone else have these? Anyone have any reoccuring ones? He was neg. on the RSV and strep. The flu (which they did have the flu shot) test will be back tomorrow. They said it could have had a flu-like virus. It's crazy because it was just a couple of hours after we noticed he had a good fever. No cold symptoms. Anyone have any words of knowledge. I feel very overwhelmed, like I've been run over by a truck. I know my dog had a seizure and has not had one on ten years, which did help me yesterday because I recognized the signs. But do I have to worry everytime now about him getting sick, do I need to be paranoid everytime he has a fever that it will spike? Anyone's knowledge or experience will be helpful....I just feel so overwhelmed.

 

Long, long story short, Matthew suddenly blew up a fever yesterday and had a febrile seizure. Anyone else have these? Anyone have any reoccuring ones? He was neg. on the RSV and strep. The flu (which they did have the flu shot) test will be back tomorrow. They said it could have had a flu-like virus. It's crazy because it was just a couple of hours after we noticed he had a good fever. No cold symptoms. Anyone have any words of knowledge. I feel very overwhelmed, like I've been run over by a truck. I know my dog had a seizure and has not had one on ten years, which did help me yesterday because I recognized the signs. But do I have to worry everytime now about him getting sick, do I need to be paranoid everytime he has a fever that it will spike? Anyone's knowledge or experience will be helpful....I just feel so overwhelmed.

 

Let me start off bu telling you that I am an er nurse. It is very common where I work to see febrile seizures, some kids are very susceptible to these even with low grade fevers. Ussually if they have a history of febrile seizures they are more likely to have seizures again with fevers not necessarily every time. I can't even imagine seeing my child seize and the way that you must have felt. My sister had epilepsy growing up and I am a nurse and take care of siezing patients all of the time but if my children did this I know that I would freak out.

The only thing that I can tell you to do is if you feel like he is getting sick give him tylenol and motrin around the clock so he doesn't have a fever. Also if he seizes keep him protected (lay him on his side so that he doesn't aspirate and hold is airway open by lifting his jaw, do not stick anything in the mouth and call 911)

I do want to tell you that my friends little girl had a seizure when she was like 18 months, she works with me (a nurse in the er) and she called 911. she was diagnosed with a febrile seizure that time and has never had a febrile since so it could be just a fluke.

 

Thank you so very much for you knowledge and experiences. If I hadn't had that experience with my dog before I would have freaked out even more. I was home alone with the kids and grabbed my neighbors. My poor 14 year old neighbor was holding him in the car and I didn't tell her that he stopped breathing twice on the way to the Urgent Care (who called the ambulance). For some reason, I didn't call 911. I still am not sure completely why. I suspected a seizure, but I just went into gear that I had to get him to the hospital or a doctor right then and there. Hopefully, I will react better next time if this happens again.

I'm just so concerned because they would just walk by someone last winter and be sick. We had fevers all winter long. Now I feel like I need to go into hiding. Keep him away from everyone and never have a babysitter. Yes, I know, this is not realistic, but I certainly would love to be in a bubble. They say it's harmless, but I'm sorry for a body to contort that way, to have his eyes rolling back, and for the deep, deep groaning afterwards.....it is not harmless.

Thank you!!

 

My son Blake experienced one last year when he was 11 months old. Quite frankly I had never heard about them and it scared the crap out of us. Come to find out-- when the fire and paramedics arrived it is a very common thing during cold/flu season. Basically his temp got to high and we had tried to do everyone thing to get it down. He had fallen asleep and I woke up to this scream and he was just glazed over. Glossy eyes, stiff as a bored, did not blink when we flipped on the bright bathroom lights. I literally thought he was dying. His seizure was not the "shaking" kind. We called 911 and they came and then we took him to the ER. When we got to the ER his temp was still 103 degrees. This is after the paramedics had given him some medicine!

Since then I have done a lot of research on this and learned that when they have the seizure it is the bodies way of shocking the body to start to cool down. As the pp said when fevers start I always start the Tylenol/Motrin approach and we have never had a incident where his temp has gotten over 101 and he has never experienced another febrile seizure. Hopefully this is the case with your son as well.

Sorry you had to experience this. I know what you went through and it is/was SO scary.

 

Hugs to you BOTH. It is one of the scariest things a parent watch their baby do! Felicia had ONE febrile seizure at 18 months due to a cold/fever. I was so scared she was dying that I called 911 and then her ped. By the time the ambulance got there she was coherent again and doing much better. She never had another one.

Josh has his first FS at 13 months due to cold fever and eventually pneu. Then he has since had 3 more (two very short ones of 20-30 seconds and one on Thanksgiving day that lasted almost 5 minutes!) Very very very scarey but again I am told not harmful to kids too. He had pneu again. So we were alternating tylenol and motrin every 3 hours to keep it down to 100! My poor baby!

I have since learned that since he has had so many, and his older sister had one too, that he has a higher chance of having one whenever he gets a fever. Hopefully he will outgrow them by 5. But they are not related to epilepic seizures I am told. So whenver he gets a fever of atleast 101, he is getting motrin asap every 6 hours.

So since your son had one over 12 months old, he may never have another one like my dd. Or he may have more.

Hang in there!

 

My son Nick has had 3 , all related to fevers, and some not very high. The pattern we have had is that I will notice he is running a fever, give him Ibuprofin and about 20 min. later he will have a seizure. We were told by an ER doc that the seizure is not caused by how high the fever is, but how quickly it shoots up. What is likely happening to us is that I catch the fever in the beginning, give the medicine and then he seizes before the medicine begins to work. The advice we were given was to:
1) Dress him in little to no clothing. It may seem uncomfortable and cold (I know I like to be bundled up when I have a fever), but it is an easy way to keep their body temperature down. He recommended just a diaper or onesie.
2) As soon as the seizure is over, put them in cool bath to quickly bring their fever down (not a cold one as this can send them into shock, just lukewarm) Warning: My son hates this, but it does work.
3) Whenever they get a fever, treat it for 24 hours straight. Don't stop and see if it will go up again. Treat it for 24 hours (even through the night, every 4 hours) and then see if it goes up. If it does, repeat another 24 hours.

It is very stressful and alway in the back of my mind. In fact, I took his temperature about an hour ago because his head felt slightly warm. Luckily it was normal. Lots and Lots of hugs and hopefully you will not have to experience another. No matter how many he has had, it still freaks me out everytime. In my head, though, I know it is not doing any harm to him. My pediatrician even told me after the second one that unless there is something else worrisome that I don't have to call them when he has one. Just treat it and keep track of them.

 

Thanks you guys!!!! I still feel like I have been in a car wreck, but doing better today (happened on Sat.). We're going to have a follow-up with the ped. in about an hour. Thank you for the support!!!

 

None of my children have had a seizure. I'm sure I'd be totally terrified, freaking out, if they did. But my entire life I've heard the story of when I had one at 8 months old. Mom had never heard of a febrile seizure, and like PPs, thought I was dying. Maybe because it was 35 years ago, the Dr's DID put me in ice water when nothing else would bring the fever down and I wasn't responding to anything. Mom said that was the scariest, because I didn't even flinch. But my fever came down and I was fine and never had another one. And have no lasting effects... at least that I'm aware of .

 

Sarah had one at 18 months and it was the worst moment of my life, ever. She has not had another one but I live in fear of it happening every time she is sick. The min any of mine have a fever I give them Motrin and rotate that with Tylenol every 3 hours for the first 24 hours. They say that is when they are most likely to seizure. I also strip them down, try to get them to drink a cool drink and if the fever is over 100 I do the lukewarm bath too. I don't wait or play any guessing games with fevers anymore. I am so sorry you had to go through this and I hope you never ever have to go through it again.

Mary

 

My niece had one when she was around 3. The doctor told us that she would be more susceptable but she has not had one since. Her parents do as the nurse poster advised and give her Tylenol when it appears that she is getting sick. It was very scary but it was also a relief to find out that it was febrile in nature and not something else.

Big hug. I hope it does not happen again.