October 18th Follow up with the Dr

We visited Noah's pediatrician today as a follow up for his trip to the ER on Saturday. He was very helpful in explaining why seizures happen to some kids, and that while Noah may or may not ever have another one, there are ways to reduce the risk. For the next year or so, at the first sign of fever, ear infection, or cold or flu we are to give Motrin to help his little body regulate his temperature. Febrile seizures happen when the body's temperature increases suddenly, even if it is considered a mild fever. We will also give precautionary Motrin after vaccinations, which he said are notorious for causing Febrile episodes.

He also ensured me that while the seizures themselves do not cause any damage to Noah, which relieves me, he did caution that there is the risk of choking or having breathing issues while the seizure is happening. So I'm back to being paranoid that I won't hear him having another one. :(

Some random facts about Febrile seizures, about 1 in 25 children between the ages of 6 months and 6 years will have one. Boys are twice as likely as girls (I thought this was strange). The unconscious, intense grogginess period Noah experienced after the seizure is called the postictal state and it is essentially the brain giving itself time to reboot.

Febrile seizures usually occur within the first 12-24 hours of illness, which makes them difficult to prevent, if we don't notice he isn't feeling well or feeling feverish we may fail to take preventative steps. :( There is a 1 in 3 chance that a child will have a second Febrile seizure. Although due to the fact that Noah had one at less than 15 months his risk of having another may be greater. Also Febrile seizures are thought to be genetic - James had two as a baby, which means little brother may have one too. Yikes!


Yes that is a bag of cookies next to him, he has not been eating very well at all the last few days. So I was just happy to see him eating something other than milk (fortunately we had a few free samples of toddler formula laying around so we've been able to pump some nutrition into him).