Question
What should I do if my child has a convulsion after a fever? Will it develop into epilepsy? What precautions should I take?
Answer
Convulsions caused solely by fever usually do not affect a child’s intelligence or future development and typically do not occur after the age of four. (The characteristics of simple febrile convulsions include their sporadic nature, short duration, high fever, and the child’s rapid recovery of consciousness after the episode.) Complex febrile convulsions refer to multiple occurrences of convulsions, even with relatively low body temperature and lasting for more than ten minutes. This situation is less ideal and may be accompanied by epilepsy symptoms as the child grows older. Children with a history of such episodes have a certain genetic predisposition.