Disclaimer: Medical advice given on this page is for patients of Rivendell Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine only. Please consult your child's physician for any medical questions.

Convulsions

There are many reasons a child may have a convulsion (or seizure). The purpose of this section is to offer some guidelines should your child have a convulsion. First, there is the impossible:

	Stay Calm
	DO NOT put anything in your child's mouth to prevent swallowing of the tongue. First of all this will never happen. Secondly, you may literally have your finger bitten off by your child
	During office hours, call immediately or call 911. Many seizures though frightening, are not life-threatening. Though this may seem difficult to believe during an actual convulsion, there are some children with seizure disorders (formerly called epilepsy) that may have 10 to 100 or more seizures a day even while on medicines.

Once the seizure stops (either on its own many times or sometimes with the help of medicines) a workup may be needed. One of the most common types of seizures that runs in families, is the "Febrile Convulsion" discussed under the Fever section of this site. Go to that page for more details.

Disclaimer: Medical advice given on this page is for patients of Rivendell Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine only. Please consult your child's physician for any medical questions.