Managing your Child’s Seizures
Seizure Action Plan
It is recommended that any child or adult with epilepsy has regular reviews with their neurologist, at least once a year. Your clinician can help draw up a plan on how to best manage seizures. Each person’s plan may be different.
Having a written seizure action plan so everyone knows what to do if your child has a seizure is invaluable. Discuss the plan with your child’s neurologist. You can find further information at Seizure Action Plans – SAP.
Seizure Monitors
Many families find it helpful to use a seizure monitor for their child, particularly during sleep. There are many different types of monitors which can use oxygen saturation levels, changes in heart rate or motion detection. You can find a comprehensive table of seizure monitors currently on the market here, shared with kind permission from OpenSeizureDetector.
Seizure Diary
Keeping a seizure diary to keep a record of dates, times and length of seizures can be very helpful when discussing your child’s epilepsy with your neurologist. It can also help identify seizure triggers such as poor sleep or illness. Seizure tracker is a free online tool with android and IOS apps https://www.seizuretracker.com/
Types of Seizures
Children with Dravet Syndrome and other genetic epilepsies often develop different types of seizures over time. These can include:
Generalised tonic clonic seizures
Stiffening of the whole body with rhythmic shaking of both sides of body.
Atonic seizures
Drop to the ground with sudden loss of body tone.
Myotonic seizures
Brief, shock-like jerks of a muscle or group of muscles.
Absence seizures and Atypical absences
Episodes of staring and unresponsiveness.
Tonic seizures
Stiffening of the whole body.
Focal seizures
Seizures which begin in a localised area of the brain and which may vary considerably in appearance in different children.
Status Epilepticus
Any seizure, or series of seizures, lasting 5 minutes or more without recovery in between, is considered prolonged. A prolonged seizure can lead to Status Epilepticus which is a medical emergency.
Status Epilepticus is considered as:
5 minutes for generalized tonic-clonic seizures
10 minutes for focal seizures
10 to 15 minutes for absence seizures
(The International League Against Epilepsy, 2015)
Prolonged seizures are generally treated with emergency medication, as specified by an individual’s clinician. Often drugs, such as buccal midazolam and rectal diazepam, are prescribed for the treatment of prolonged or repetitive seizures. Specific timeframes for administering emergency medication should be discussed with your clinician and can be written into a seizure action plan.