Powered by  Health Matters | Facts on those scary febrile
seizures   Email Print    Error parsing XSLT file:
\xslt\article-author.xslt Thursday, November 19, 2009   One of
the scariest things for any parent to see is their child having
a seizure. It comes on suddenly and seems to take over the
child's body. Its victims often become unconscious and are
thrown into a series of uncontrollable jerking movements. The
eyes may move to one side or the other. The jaw tightens. Some
people wet their pants.  The episode usually lasts a few seconds
to a few minutes (but it can feel like hours) and then it's
gone, leaving the child exhausted. Sleep often follows. It's
hard for a parent to imagine any circumstance where this
disturbing picture is completely harmless, but in the case of
febrile seizures, it is.  Febrile is the medical term used to
describe someone who has a fever, so febrile seizures are
brought on by a fever and nothing else. They occur in children
between the ages of 3 months and 5 years and 2-5 percent