I’ve just got back from the hospital where I’ve spent the last 36 hours with my 14 month old baby girl. We were taken in by ambulance after a fit yesterday morning, and while we were in the hospital, five hours later, she had another fit. They kept us in, she had re-hydration powders, lots of water and some toast today but no medication. She isn’t vaccinated.
She had had a sickness bug for 36 hours before the first fit but did not have a temperature at any point - all obs in the hospital show a normal temperature and she didn’t feel usually hot, just slightly warmer than normal.
I can’t understand why she had the second fit - we have no history of fits in either side of the family, I have two older children but have never seen a fit before so feel very panicky and shaken.
I can’t imagine how I’ll ever be able to sleep again as I just can’t take my eyes off her in case she has another fit. According to research online, having 2 fits means she is at higher risk of epilepsy and of having more fits in the future.
Her blood tests returned all normal, as did urine samples and her sugar levels were low on entering the hospital but gradually rose to normal while we were there. The ECG was normal, and the doctor wants to do a non urgent EEG brainwave scan in the next couple of weeks - she says she doesn’t expect to find anything, just wants to reassure herself nothing is wrong.
I plan to take Evie to our homeopath - my son already sees her and she’s brilliant - but I wondered if anyone has any experience of this or advice? I just feel so shaken up and worried about her - every time she turns her head I think it’s going to be another fit - I don’t know how likely they are to recur so soon, the unpredictability of it all is the most terrifying thing… Any help would be much appreciated.
I don’t have any experience of fits unfortunately but I just didn’t want to read and run. Sending you big hugs x x x x as I can imagine this is a really scary time for you. Hope someone comes along soon to reassure you and hope the fits are just due to her sickness bug and nothing else.
my son had febrile convulsions when he was little everytime he had a temp, which it sounds like may be what your daughter had. I had to learn to make sure his temp was kept under control when he was ill, using calpol and/ or ibruprofen. He grew out of them though still is prone to temps when ill, no signs of epilepsy at all. Im sure your daughter will be fine just keep an eye on her and keep her temp down xx
to try to reassure you as it is really scary, I had a couple of fits as a kid, and apart from my family thinking I am nuts , I am ok !!
it really could be one of those things. I would conceder seeing the home path for yourself to help you relax as anxiety is not going to help you.
How very distressing for you all. I don’t have any advice, just sending hugs.
My youngest (9 months) had a virus recently, with temps very high, and had some mild febrile convulsions. I brought his temp down with cool wet flannels, but just like you say, I couldn’t take my eyes off him or even fall asleep through worry. It sounds like the medical staff are not too concerned? If the first fit was due her body reacting to the tummy bug, then the second fit could well have been for the same cause perhaps?
Our children seem so strong and yet suddenly so fragile. Hope you are all starting to recover.
I’ve only seen a febrile convulsion due to high temp, and know how scary that can be. I did have a friend whose daughter had a couple of fits, she was seen by the hospital and had tests done, but as far as I know there was no long term consequences. Just having to keep a close eye on her when ill. Keeping you all in my thoughts, and hope that is the end of fits for Evie.
Thank you all - sorry the original post was a bit formal sounding, I copied it from a medical group that I use as just wanted to get it out asap and hopefully get some reassurance before I attempt to try and sleep! None at all last night so I feel exhausted but too scared to sleep I think.
Thank you all for your replies and for caring! I’d love to read any other replies too, so reassuring to hear that some of you have had experiences which have turned out fine, I just feel so lost and worried about the whole thing.
My youngest dd had a tonic clonic fit at 1 month old while breastfeeding I can honestly say it completely scared me to death so I know exactly what your going through. It was told at the time it would have just been febrile convulsion as she had a bit of a chest infection, despite the fact she didn’t have a temperature. She has since gone on to have a further 2 tonic clonic fits, several absent seizures and hundreds of myoclonic seizures.
I know it’s a really scary experience, but the fact that she had the second fit in hospital is the best thing in a bad situation. It means they will be able to have collected the data they needed promptly while it was still relevant. We ended up with lots of statys in hospital so they could capture her fits and collect whatever they needed straight afterwards. The EEG isn’t to bad at all and the staff that did my dd’s were fantastic with her and they had loads of toys and were great playing with her and really relaxed. I know im a newbie but If you want to talk at all or have any questions please feel free to pm me.
I don’t have personal experience, but you say she didn’t have a particularly high temp, so that would likely rule out a febrile seizure due to pyrexia, however, you do say she had low glucose levels. It “could” be hypoglycaemia. That “could” cause seizures in young children. have her checked out for diabetes. At this age it is likely that if she did have it (and this is just a guess and not a medical opinon) it is type one.
Don’t panic though because “if” it is and that is a big if, it is very easily manageable in young children now as they have insulin pumps that automaticallyt detect the drop in glucose.
It could also just be a one off weird thing. My son had that at 2 weeks of age, lethargy, inability to feed, admitted to hospital and to this day we still don’t know why. they kept him on for three days as they were so worried, however…nothing showed up, no bacteria, no virus…just weird.
Nno experience or knowledge either. Just lots of hugs and sympathy.
I think you can relax a bit, if there was something very wrong the doctors would have kept her in for further tests. As the Dr let her home and is just following up to make sure, I think it will probably turn out to be one of those mysterious child things that scares the pants off you, but the child is perfectly fine and the cause is never fathomed.
And stop reading the internet! lol. I know, its so easy to do, but all the info you find on the simplest things is always worst case scenario and damn scary. When I had those really bad ear infections from an abcess that burst.. I looked it up and was terrified as it suggested hospitalisation that infection could spread to the brain causing brain damage, deafness, even death etc….. and nah it was fine, I just need antibiotics!
A friend of my recently had a very scary health scare, and when she looked online she freaked herself out big time…. investigations since have proven that she’s fine. She has a very large cyst, and the decision now is whether to operate to remove or not… sounds like the Drs might be nodding toward just leaving be.
So anyway, please, please stop reading the internet (lol I know it’s hard) but at the end of the day diagnosis is really quite a precise thing and online stuff is often generic..and not always accurate either!
My sister had fits as a child which turned out to be infantile epilpsy (unrelated to ‘proper’epilepsy)- she was medicated until early teens when she grew out of them and has never had a recurrence
Am sure that this is not what you LO has- but it wasn’t the end of the world for her- and it never really stopped her doing anything in childhood…..
