Home Management of febrile convulsion

The on-call doctor was just settling  down to rest a bit after having attended to an emergency,

"Doctor! Doctor!! Pls epp me" came the cry of a distressed mother bearing a child of about a year old.

"What happened"

"Na corvortion" her own way of saying convulsion

"Put him on the couch"
The mother dropped an unresponsive child on the couch

On examining the baby, there was a metal spoon in between his teeth, there was no sign of breathing, the chest was silent, pulses were absent, the pupils of the eye were fixed and dilated. This could only mean one thing, the child was dead.

Well, this child had high fever for 2 days and then convulsed on the third day, in the course of convulsing, the mother gave him herbal concoction.

Apparently the child had febrile convulsion and choked on the concoction he was given. Really sad because convulsion does not kill

What then is febrile convulsion and how do you recognize it, it's simple.

 Febrile convulsion is convulsion occurring in a child aged 3 months to 5 years due to fever of extracranial origin. This means the fever is caused by diseases not related to the brain. These diseases include;

• Malaria
• pneumonia
• Measles
• Tonsillitis
• Typhoid
• Urinary tract infection
• Over wrapping a child

So what should you do during the seizure?

Remain calm, check your watch to time the convulsion, it typically lasts few seconds to 10 minutes.

Remove the child from harms way, remove every object that could hurt the child and place him where he won't fall off.

After the seizure

Expose the child and fan him,

Put a washcloth or small towel in tap water and mop the child's body,

give paracetamol (10mg/kg) at the end of the seizure to bring down the fever

What shouldn't you do?
Do not hold the child down during the seizure

Do not use hot or ice water

Do not use metal spoon as this can cause bruises in the child's mouth

Do not try to put drugs, food, water or herbs in baby's mouth as baby can aspirate or even choke on those things.

The good thing is, febrile convulsion doesn't last more than 10 minute,

Doesn't recur within 24hrs

It doesn't have any neurological effect on the child, they continue to develop normally

Note that after doing all of these you still need to go to the hospital for the cause of the fever to be sourced and treated by a doctor.

You can prevent febrile convulsion by springing into action once u notice your child has fever

1. Mop his body regularly
2. Give paracetamol (acetaminophen)
3. Go to the hospital 

Your child's health is in your hands. Be wise
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