My daughter has febrile seizure, can she be healed of it or will it stay forever?

Karen - posted on 08/27/2011

my son has had 4 of them, while my daughter only had 1.my son hasnt had 1 for 2 years, so hopefully he is fine now. i sstill worry when he gets sick anc check him constantly. just make sure whoever watches her knows what to look for and how to handle a seizure. when my son gets sick, i stay right on top of his fevers so they dont have a chance to spike, but he has had seizurs at 102, so the degree of the temp isnt what causes it, its jsut the bodies inabilityh to handle the rise in temp. most kids outgrow them. dont over worry, i always do and i wish i didnt. the length of the siezure matters to, my kids always last 5-6 minutes which is a long time for the nrain to not be getting oxygen, so i worry about how its going to affect them long term. but my daughter i super smart, off the charts at school. just pay close attention when she gets sick and have information posted wherever she is in case of emergency. the more prepared someone is, the less scary it is.

Jo Ann - posted on 08/23/2011

Yes! Myself, my sister and my mother all had them up until the age of 5 and now I'm looking forward to when my son turns 5 and won't have them due to high fevers!

Shelly - posted on 08/28/2010

Your daughter may grow out of febrile seizures. My daughter has had seizures for all 29 years of her life, and will probably have them all her life. Don't worry about her having seizures (I know it is hard but) it will get easier as you either get used to them or they become fewer. Many famous and brilliant people in history have had seizures and many people today with epilepsy can function quite normally. The seizures can be an inconvenience, but it gets easier to deal with all the time. Schools can deal with seizures-just like they deal with lots of other health issues. (I work with Special -ed Kindergarten) My daughter just needs to rest after a seizure for awhile-depending on the severity of her seizure, then she can go back to normal activities. Seizures shouldn't make your child "act" any different than any other kid. Talk to others who have been through this. They can help you be more at ease with the situation. You want your child's life to be as normal as possible-don't spoil her (as much as I did my daughter she is rotten!). Find good doctors that you trust and feel you can ask any little questions you may have. Keep a seizure journal to record what your daughter's seizures are like so you can tell the doctors what happens before-during and after a seizure. I hope and pray for you that your daughter's seizures go away on thier own. But her life canbe pretty good even though she may have epilepsy. Her life and yours is not over, chin up be well informed and try to let her be as "normal" as possible. Hope this helps.

Shalah - posted on 08/25/2010

Hi, Virginia. Wanted to try and clear things up so you won't be so scared. My daughter had gran mal seizures for over six years, and I know the way a parent feels watching their child go through a seizure. But my daughter's seizures were caused by epilepsy, her brain had misfiring electrical signals or neurological disfunction. A febrile seizure is caused by high fever, and is not associated with long-term neurological problems. So the first thing you need to understand is that the seizure was part of the urinary tract infection, not because there is something amiss with her brain. Also, febrile seizures are harmless, as scary as they can be. Most of all, as long as she doesn't have a fever, there will be no seizures. So keeping her from getting fevers will keep her seizure free. And when she does get sick, there are medications your pediatrician can prescribe to keep them from happening. I know how helpless you must feel, but there is hope and you are not alone. I hope this helps.

Tessa - posted on 08/25/2010

My son's seizure started with a Febrile Seizure when he was sick and had a high fever. Unfortunately he did continue to have Seizures. i hope that your daughter doesn't continue to have Seizure activity! Good Luck!

Kathy - posted on 08/25/2010

As a person with epilepsy, I'd like to stress that the best thing my parents ever did for me was treat me no differently from the rest of my siblings. IF your daughter does have epilepsy, which doesn't sound likely, treating her like she's an invalid, not goting places because she might have a seizure, keeping her out of school -- that kind of thing -- does her no favors at all. I know seizures are scary but if she does has epilepsy, you can learn to deal with them and they can be controlled. Priscilla is totally right -- do not let epilepsy stop you from enjoying your child and stop your child from enjoying a normal life.

Natasha - posted on 08/24/2010

The best website I have found for information is epilepsy.com even if your child has not been diagnosed with epilepsy, just febrile seizures. This site by far has everything you ever wanted to know regarding seizures, medications, others' experiences, doctors, tests etc.... check it out, I am so glad I did. I definitely feel more informed and prepared

Priscilla - posted on 08/24/2010

Hello my son had his first febrile seizure at 8mths many grand mals and many types of medications he has been stable for a year now he is 8yrs old, goes to school and is very activite enjoy your child ,don't let the illness stop your child.

Jessica - posted on 08/23/2010

Hello! Mine daughter also has seizures. They started when she was 14 months old from a kidney infection. She has since had a total of 3 grand mals from kidney infections. She is currently on Keppra and has been seizure free that we know of. We were sent to the neurologist after her 3rd seizure and her EEG came back abnormal, so she was put on Keppra. She will be 5 in a few weeks. My daughter had kidney reflux which would put her temp anywhere from 103 to 106. She went on an antiobiotic for the kidney reflux as well as the seizure medication. The best thing you can do is educate yourself and realize that you are not alone. We are taking the seizure meds for one more year and then will talk about taking her off. She came off the antiobiotic a year ago and has had no reoccurences. Good luck to you and your family. Hope things get better.

Virginia - posted on 08/23/2010

Thank you all for repsonding. Yes i still hve som fear for my daughter seizure. But tomorrow me and my husband are going to the hospital for further research on her urinary tract inrfection. Because of the infection , I was told, she had febrile seizures. I will all inform you soon of the result. Once again thanks for the information.

Natasha - posted on 08/23/2010

My son is 6 yr old, he has been having complex febrile seizures since the age of 2. He has had 3 gran mals, and numerous small seizure. I completely feel your fear. It is one of the most helpless feelings a parent can feel, what's worse is they're a sort of mystery still. Please rest assured that she is going to be ok and if it continues you are going to need to be strong for her. There are warning signs to look for and preventative measures you can take to stop one from happening. There is also a medication you can ask your doctor about that is ONLY given when you see a warning sign of a seizure about to happen. If you want me to explain further my email is natada75@gmail.com

Andrea - posted on 08/22/2010

well, my son is going to be 7 years old and still gets seizures. They say its febrile but I don't believe them. He has been on so many different medicines and the last few have caused behavior problems that I didn't see coming and we had to take him off those and put him on something else. He was in the hospital for a week over new years and they couldn't get any read on the EGG. It is so frustrating to know that he has these and you can't do anything about them. They use to be just minor, but some have gotten bad enough where he is awake during them and can see and feel what is going on and gets scared. They said he was suppose to outgrow them but he isn't. I am worried he won't ever be able to drive or take a girl on her first date without mom or dad taking him :(
Don't make your life so that you don't do anything. You have to try and treat them the same as you would if they didn't have the seizures otherwise they won't get to experience anything. You can't stop them, but you are now aware of them, so you can help better prepare yourself.
We too have stopped taking him to the ER because they do the same thing every time, the admit him and fill him w/ fluids and Tylenol, wait for the fever to go down, and then let us go. Well I could do that at home and not get a bill.
I have even gone as far as giving our son the dosage that works for him because we are the ones w/ him each day. The doctors were giving him so many meds, that the side affects of behavior were getting so horrible that we couldn't deal with it. Now that we took it upon ourselves, we have a much better son. You are the ones w/ the kids all of the time, where as the dr's only see them every once in awhile. But then again, my situation is different than others. We even had a medication prescribed that gave our son suicidal thoughts! all they could do is tell us to go see a shrink! amazing how when we took him off, and put him on another med and adjusted it accordingly, he is doing great!!
I am jumping all over so I apologize.

Patricia - posted on 08/18/2010

As a mom of two kids with seizures (one who only had one and one who has had grand mal and petit mal seizures for 29 years), I need to reassure you that if it was a FEBRILE seizure, that means it was caused by a high fever...not due to a neurological disorder as is the case with grand mal, petit mal and epilepsy. You should be fine. Even if she had seizures every day (which is soooooooo unlikely), you can't stop your life OR hers because of it. My biggest regret with my son (and something he has never forgiven me for) was over-protecting him...being so afraid he would have a seizure that I took away the joy of doing things and participating in things. Don't worry! Odds are very, very, very good that she will just be fine!!

Tanya - posted on 08/16/2010

i have a 2 year old son who has complex febrile seizures. he has had them since he was six months old. He has had roughly six of them and it is still very scary to deal with. I am also told that he will grow out of them by 5 or six years old. I often wonder how i'm gonna be able to put him in school when its time. I am a stay at home mom now and have become a germ-a-phobe. I dont go anywhere if i know anyone is sick or has been recently. And when I go out in public I'm all about the sanitizers, wiping down carts, ect. I am getting a little better since I moved into town closer to the ER, and also since i was able to get a small portable oxygen tank and diastat (rectal valluim) for him in case of a seizure. I also carry what we call his medicine bag that has a couple thermometers, and tylenol and motrin in it (along with the diastat). We give him both tylenol and motrin if we notice any kind of a fever which to us is anything over 99.4. (We took his normal temp at various times of the day over several days and came to the conclusion that he doesn't typically run over that.) And we give him the diastat if he has a fever of over 101 and it cant be brought down with traditional means (sponge bath{they say you should never put a child that suffers from febrile seizures into a tub of water}, tylenol, motrin, ect.) i understand your worry and fear of putting her in school my suggestion is to speak with the nursae on staff and make sure she is knowledgeable about febrile seizures and that she will know what to do should one occur. I'd also speak with those adults that will be around her and ask them to familiarize themselves with it also. I'm not sure how long you daughter seizes for, but my son seizes for five or more minutes and does not breathe that whole time and i wasn't able to deal with that so i asks his pediatrician for a prescription for and oxygen tank and she gave me one. and i'm not familiar with luminaal or how and when its taken, but diastat looks like an epi pe almost only its inserted rectally and is used as an aid to prevent siezures or if necessary to stop them. so if we can catch the fever before it spikes we do have the opportunity to stop the seizure. I dont know that i can make you feel better about her situation except that she should grow out of them. I do empathize as a mother who gets phisically ill and has anxiety issues everytime my sons temp gets over 100 degrees. i find it absolutely horrifying evertime it happens and feel for anyone who has to deal with any kind of seizure disorders. so if you ever wanna talk about it or anything to do with it just let me know.

Jamie - posted on 08/16/2010

Children generally outgrow febrile seizures by age 2 although they can have them up to 5 or 6 years old. The peak is right around 18 months old. Also, the younger they are when they start having them, the more likelihood that they'll have them in the future. That being said, 50% of children that have 1 febrile seizure will NOT have another. Febrile seizures are NOT dangerous although they are absolutely terrifying to watch. My daughter had her 1st febrile seizure at 9 months old. She is now almost 23 months old and has had 10+ febrile seizures since then. Each one has gotten easier to deal with. She seemed to peak with them right around 17 months old. We no longer run to the ER when she has them. I've come to terms with the fact that I cannot control them. Realizing that I'm not in control was a huge step for me.