Epilepsy and Seizure First Aid: Helping Your Kids Through Childhood Epilepsy
Table of Contents
Epilepsy is the most common chronic neurological condition that affects children. When a seizure happens, a parent is almost always the first to respond. The difference between a manageable moment and a frightening one sits in whether those few steps are already familiar to you.
What is Epilepsy?
Epilepsy is a chronic brain condition that causes a person to have seizures. A seizure is a short burst of abnormal electrical activity in the brain, and what your child experiences during that burst depends on which part of the brain is involved and how much of it is affected.
About half of all people who have a single seizure never have another, and one episode on its own is below the diagnostic threshold. About 1 in 200 Australian children are diagnosed with epilepsy, and approximately 70% of them achieve good seizure control with medication.
Causes of Epilepsy
Epilepsy in children has a range of causes. Genetics plays a role in many cases, sometimes as an inherited epilepsy syndrome and sometimes as a family predisposition to seizures. Brain injury from a difficult birth, trauma, or infections like meningitis or encephalitis can also lead to epilepsy, occasionally years after the original event. For close to half of all children diagnosed with epilepsy, tests never find a clear cause.
Types of Seizures, and Their Signs and Symptoms
Seizures fall into two categories: focal seizures, which affect part of the brain, or generalised seizures that affect the entire brain.
Focal seizures can show up as a twitch on one side of the body, a vacant stare with lip-smacking, a strange smell or taste your child cannot explain, or a brief change in mood or behaviour. Your child may stay fully aware during the seizure or have their awareness reduced.
Generalised seizure types can be further broken up into:
Tonic-clonic seizures: your child loses consciousness, the body stiffens, and the arms and legs then begin rhythmic jerking. These last one to three minutes in most cases, and breathing can sound laboured or noisy during and right after.
Absence seizures: a brief pause, often only a few seconds long, where your child stares with no expression or response, stops what they are doing, and then carries on without remembering anything happened. Childhood absence epilepsy is the form behind most cases in school-age children.
Myoclonic seizures: sudden, brief muscle jerks in the arms, legs, or whole body that can look like a sharp startle.
Tonic seizures: a brief stiffening of the body, arms, or legs that can cause a fall if your child is standing.
Atonic seizures: a sudden loss of muscle tone that drops your child to the ground, sometimes called drop attacks.
Clonic seizures: rhythmic jerking of parts of the body without the stiffening phase that comes with tonic-clonic seizures.
First Aid for Epileptic Seizures
First aid for a seizure caused by epilepsy is mostly about keeping your child safe while the event runs its own course. You should not try to stop a seizure. The actions you can take to protect them are:
Note the time the seizure starts.
Move any hard, sharp, or hot objects away from your child.
Cushion their head with something soft.
Loosen any tight clothing or anything around their neck.
Once the jerking stops, gently roll your child onto their side with the upper leg bent forward.
Stay with your child. Use a calm, quiet voice to reassure them until they are fully alert.
Do not put anything in their mouth. Do not hold them down, and do not try to stop the movements. Call triple zero (000) for an ambulance if any of the following apply:
The seizure continues beyond five minutes
A second seizure starts before your child has recovered from the first
Your child is having trouble breathing after the seizure
Your child has been injured during the seizure
This is the first seizure your child has ever had
The seizure happened in water
You are not sure whether the seizure has ended
The Recovery Period
After a seizure, your child will often be deeply tired, sore, have aching muscles or a headache, or be confused for thirty minutes to a couple of hours. Once the seizure is over:
Remain close to your child until they are fully alert, even if they want to sleep
Let them rest in a safe position, lying on their side if possible
Change them into dry clothes if needed
Offer water or a small snack once they can swallow and speak without slurring
Write down what you saw: how the event started, how long it lasted, which parts of the body were involved, and your child’s condition in the minutes after
Follow any direct advice from your child’s specialist or from your family epilepsy management plan
Contact your child’s doctor if the seizure looks different from their usual pattern, if their recovery is extending well beyond its usual length, or if your child has been injured.
Helping Your Child Live With Epilepsy: Building a Seizure Action Plan
After an epilepsy diagnosis, your next practical step is building a written plan with your child’s doctor so every adult who cares for your child knows exactly what to do during a seizure. An Epilepsy Management Plan sets out:
Your child’s seizure types and what they look like
Their usual seizure length
Known seizure triggers
Any medications including dosage and timing
Step-by-step first aid for your child’s specific seizures
Emergency contact numbers and your treating doctor’s signature
Share copies with anyone who looks after your child. Australian schools and early learning centres must store a copy of the plan and train staff who care for a child with epilepsy.
A seizure diary is another useful document. Each entry records the date, time, length, what the seizure looked like, possible triggers in the hours before, and recovery time. Your child’s doctor uses this information to adjust medication doses and refine the management plan over time.
A few safety changes at home reduce seizure-related injuries without turning your child’s quality of life upside down:
Supervise baths and showers for young children
Set a fixed rule that your child never swims alone
Use fitted sheets rather than heavy bedding for children who have seizures during sleep
Keep consistent bedtimes
First Aid Training for People with Epilepsy
Any parent can step in to help their child after a seizure. An epilepsy diagnosis isn’t an insurmountable problem your child has to face alone. Learning seizure and epilepsy first aid through a nationally accredited first aid course is just one thing you can do, and it’s one of the most impactful. By enrolling today you can help make sure that the next time your child has a seizure you can help keep them safe no matter how bad it gets.
FAQs
Can A Child Outgrow Their Epilepsy?
Many childhood epilepsies stop on their own before age twelve in around two thirds of cases.
Can Flashing Lights Trigger a Seizure?
Flashing lights is a well-known trigger, but does not often cause seizures. Photosensitive epilepsy only affects about 3% of people with epilepsy, with onset most common between the ages of 7 and 19.
Should I Take a Childcare First Aid Course or a Standard Provide First Aid Course?
Either course is fine. A childcare first aid course covers all of the same information as a first aid course, but with additional information on reporting to help teachers and childcare workers. It is just as appropriate for parents or carers of children.
