A child’s first seizure: is it epilepsy?

11 years ago, nine-year-old Cassidy Megan came up with Purple Day. The girl suffered from epilepsy and really wanted as many people as possible to know about such a disease, so that they would support those who find it difficult to live with such a disease.

Most people have their first epileptic seizure during childhood. The first attack of seizures causes not only anxiety in parents, but even fear and panic. What caused the convulsions? How to live on? Can a child be helped? In this article, we will talk about seizures that a child has for the first time. Do they always indicate epilepsy? How to examine a child? 

What are seizures?

Convulsions are an involuntary convulsive contraction of a muscle or muscle group that occurs as a reaction of the body to the influence of certain external and internal factors. Convulsions are often accompanied by loss of consciousness. The onset of seizures in children is often the primary response of the body when its vital functions deteriorate. Convulsions are symptoms of various diseases, both acute and chronic.

The onset of seizures in a child does not mean that now they will always recur. However, this is a very serious pathological condition that requires not only emergency care, but also a thorough examination of the child. You can also find such a term – “seizures”. It is used synonymously with the term “convulsions”.

What are the types of seizures in a child? There are several classifications of seizures.

• According to the first classification, they are divided into febrile and afebrile . Febrile seizures are triggered by increased body temperature. Afebrile seizures occur due to various reasons: epilepsy, heart rhythm disturbances, asphyxia, psychogenic convulsions, metabolic disorders, and others. 
• Convulsions can be generalized (covering the muscles of the entire body) and partial (local).
• By the nature of the involvement of muscles in an attack, convulsions are clonic, tonic, clonic -tonic, tonic-clonic.
• It is customary to distinguish not only seizures, but also their equivalents: flinching, tremors, twitching, involuntary movements, and others.

Personal experience

Maria, 37 years old

I’ve always imagined seizures this way: a person is shaking, he loses consciousness, and foam comes out of his mouth. I had no idea that it could be otherwise. Therefore, for several months I did not notice any epileptic seizures in my child. They were repeated a couple of times a week. During the game, my daughter froze abruptly, began to look, without blinking, at one point, her hands strained somehow unnaturally at those moments. After 1-1.5 minutes, she continued the game again, but did not immediately come to her senses, she could not remember what she was doing before. Once I told a doctor about it. The doctor was very alarmed and urgently recorded us for an encephalogram. The doctor’s terrible guesses were confirmed. We are now learning to live with epilepsy. By the way, now the convulsions have changed their character.

Seizures in children of the first year of life

In babies in the first year of life, seizures occur much more often than in older children. This is due to the anatomical and physiological characteristics of the nervous system of babies. Seizures that develop in newborns are called neonatal seizures. Their frequency varies according to various sources: from 1.1 to 16 per 1000 newborn babies.

What are the main causes of seizures in newborn babies?

• Consequences of birth trauma;
• Manifestations of bilirubin encephalopathy (due to severe jaundice);
• The consequences of severe hypoxia and asphyxia suffered;
• Manifestations of intrauterine infection, or that infection that developed after birth;
• Congenital malformations of the brain;
• Brain damage caused by the use of alcohol, drugs and toxic substances by the mother during pregnancy;
• Transient metabolic disorders (lack of glucose, calcium, magnesium, sodium metabolic disorders, etc.);
• Congenital metabolic diseases (phenylketonuria, galactosemia , etc.);

Personal experience

Svetlana, 22 years old

We have a lot of grief in our family. Our long-awaited baby was born sick. Although at first it seemed to me that everything was fine. She suckled with appetite, was active. But even in the hospital, seizures suddenly began. The doctor said that it was impossible to leave home. We were transferred to the children’s hospital for examination in the regional center. The MRI showed multiple cysts in the brain. Where does all this come from? I didn’t get any pain during pregnancy. The birth was easy. The doctors think I had an infection early in my pregnancy. And I think my profession influenced me. I work as a painter and have been breathing paint for up to 30 weeks! The daughter has convulsions every day. I cry all the time, doctors choose treatment and do not give any predictions. Perhaps we will be able to make an accurate diagnosis and find the cause of the seizures. But for now, the diagnosis contains the terrible letters “VLF” (congenital malformation).

In the first year of life, there are other reasons for the appearance of seizures, which are not mentioned above. Many of these are the causes of seizures in older children. These include:

• Infectious diseases (influenza, various meningitis, encephalitis and other infections), intoxication, poisoning;
• Traumatic brain injury;
• Adverse reactions after vaccinations;
• Epilepsy;
• Brain tumors;
• Congenital heart defects;
• Spasmophilia in the presence of severe symptoms of rickets;
• Phakomatoses (some hereditary diseases in which the skin, nervous system, internal organs are affected);
• Affective-respiratory cramps associated with negative emotions in the child.