Seizures are common events in children and up to 10% of all
children experience at least one seizure during their childhood. They
can be triggered by many conditions such as fever, medications
or injury. Febrile seizures are the most common types of seizures,
affecting 3–4% of children. While epilepsy is typically recurrent and
unprovoked, a single, isolated seizure is not epilepsy. Taking a detailed
history of the seizure description helps establish the diagnosis. A
video recording of the event can also support the diagnosis and rule
out non-epileptic seizures that resemble seizures, such as pseudoseizure.
Seeing a child having a seizure, particularly if it is the first
one, is usually frightening and distressing for the parents. First seizure
should always be evaluated by health professionals because of a
possible serious underlying cause. If the seizure occurs at home, the
child should be placed in the recovery side position to prevent the
swallowing of any vomit. The care of a child who does have epilepsy
is best achieved by a community or hospital epilepsy specialist nurse.
These nurses play a pivotal role in providing a close link between the
epileptic children and their families. Such a nurse is also in an ideal
position to establish a link between the doctor and affected families,
offering valuable advice and support, and visiting the epileptic child
at home.