Questions About Febrile Seizures

Yes the body runs fevers to fight infection HOWEVER (JUST like how baby snakes can't control how much venom they release, making them the most dangerous), babies bodies are NOTORIOUS with still figuring out the whole homeostasis thing / how strongly to react to infection. By the time kids are done teething (at about 2yo) their body usually has a handle on it. BUT even adults can spike fevers of 104+. You don't let someone die of a fever, you give them a fever reducer.

Fevers that high do NOT help, they hurt. It's our bodies freaking out / nervous system just flailing trying to stay alive. Like running away from a badguy into the street and getting hit by a car.

When someone has a history of febrile seizures TREAT AT FIRST SIGN. As they start getting better you can start stretching out the dose times to allow the body to learn how to self regulate. But don't play around in the beginning. Dose, and thank god we have the meds for it!!!

With fevers, it's "better low than high" safe/ than sorry. Her body will eventually learn how to use the "dimmer" switch on triggering fevers, but until then... use the tylenol/ motrin as training wheels.

Just a note: DO NOT NOT NOT put your baby or child in a cool bath. More than anything else, cool baths TRIGGER seizures in people of all ages with a fever. Their body goes into shock. Adults tend to have heart attacks and then seize, children tend to seize and then have heart attacks. LUKEWARM baths, otoh, are often recommended... but you reeeeally need to make sure that the water feels wrist temp or slightly warmer to YOU (will feel icy to her, but won't send her into shock). Hospitals put fever patients not responding to meds fast enough into either cool baths or ice baths all the time... but they have the crash cart right there with them, because on average about half the patients need to get shocked back to a normal rhythm. Even cooling blankets can trigger shock. It's just a very scary thing to be experimenting with at home.

So easy, peasy: dose at first sign. If it's still climbing after 15 minutes, add the other "type" of fever reducer (aka if you start with motrin, add tylenol.. if you start with tylenol, add motrin). As her fever lowers over the next few doses, subtract one and just stay on one type, then as it lowers further subtract the other.

BUT : As with all medical things, if you have questions, doubts, etc. PLEASE feel free to call your doctor or the 24/7 nurse hotline for honest to god medical advice. As long as you have a phone, you're never alone.

After our first experience with a febrile seizure, and after seeking the pediatricians advise, we did start medication as soon as we knew hour daughter had a low grade fever. She is 5 now and has had only 3 (that we witnessed, I guess there may have been more at night???) We rarely medicate, even ourselves. I don't pop an advil every time I have a headache, but those seizures scared the hell out of me, and it took some calming down to not freak. We called 911 the first time because I was so scared and it seemed it was lasting too long. I became obsessed with preventing a high fever! Hopefully it was a one time thing for your daughter!

Our son started febrile seizures at 11 months. It's not how high the temperature gets, it's how high the temperature rises. We have to be careful not to put too many clothes on him in winter. Once after leaving the doctor's office, his temp spiked just from putting him in the car seat. It's absolutely the most frightening thing to witness. We went through this for 3 months and many tests. We did not medicate him as recommended by a neurologist. He just grew out of it with our careful attention to his needs. You are not doing anything wrong to cause these. Monitor his temps carefully and when it gets too high to be comfortable alternate Tylenol and Motrin. Our son is now 19 and never had any problems after spring arrived and he needed fewer layers of clothes. We went through his episodes in the winter. Good luck.

I definitely treated the fever when I saw it coming on. My daughter had her first one and only had one after that. The second one happened after we drove down the shore. I didn't realize she was sick when we left. We got to the beach and literally walked from the car to the beach and up to the port a potty and back to our spot on the beach and she seized b/c the exertion and the heat made her temp climb. We left the beach and spent the day at the hospital. My point is though, that had known that she was getting a fever, medication would have been given and we obviously would have stayed home.

My daughter is 6 now and should have outgrown the seizures but I still watch her temp closely when she is sick.

Good Luck.

I know I am a little late in answering this question, but I wanted to give you a website that always gives me a piece of mind. It is drsears.com. The website is extremely comprehensive. Dr. Sears is a pediatrician as are his wife and children. He has a children's illness a-z section that you can look up just about anything. Read his fever section, it is great.