Seizure first aid is something you can learn and apply without a medical background. When your child has a seizure, what you do in those next few minutes directly affects how safe they are and how well they recover.
What Is a Seizure?
A seizure is a sudden burst of abnormal electrical activity in the brain that temporarily disrupts its normal function. During a seizure, your child may jerk, go stiff, fall, stare into space, or become unresponsive when you call their name. Some children remain conscious but confused; others lose consciousness entirely. Most seizures stop on their own within a few minutes.
Seizures can be caused by a range of conditions, including epilepsy, fever, head injury, low blood sugar, or an infection. Epilepsy is diagnosed when a person has at least two seizures that occur without a trigger.
Seizure Types
Focal seizures can look so subtle that anyone watching may not realise one has occurred. During a focal seizure, your child may suddenly freeze, stare, and not respond when you call their name. Some children make repetitive movements such as lip-smacking or fidgeting with their clothing without seeming aware of what they are doing. Others experience only internal sensations, such as tingling, a strange taste or smell, or a rising feeling in their stomach, and may show no outward signs at all.
Tonic-clonic seizures are the type most people associate with epilepsy. During this type of seizure, your child’s body stiffens first, which may cause a fall, and then their limbs jerk in strong, rhythmic movements. Your child may drool, their face may turn blue, or they may lose bladder control. Tonic and atonic seizures appear the same way.
Absence seizures cause a sudden lapse in awareness that looks like brief staring or daydreaming, and as a result they are commonly missed.
Myoclonic seizures produce a sudden, brief jerk in a muscle or group of muscles, and often only last a second or two.
Emergency Epilepsy and Seizure First Aid
Seizure first aid is centred on keeping your child safe until the seizure passes on its own. Start by timing the seizure if possible. Move any sharp objects away from the area around the child and cushion their head with something soft. If your child is lying on the ground when the seizure begins, leave them in place unless they are in immediate danger. If there is fluid in their mouth, such as saliva or vomit, gently roll your child onto their side straight away to protect their airway.
Do not try to restrict your child’s movements or stop the jerking and do not put anything in their mouth. It is a myth that they can swallow their tongue.
After the seizure, speak to your child calmly, and let them know where they are and that they are safe. They may feel sleepy, confused, or sore, especially after a tonic-clonic seizure, and this can last up to an hour or more. Stay with them until they have fully recovered.
When to Call for Help: Dial 000 for an Ambulance
Seizures are unpredictable. Seizure first aid manages most safely, but a seizure has become a medical emergency when:
- The seizure lasts longer than five minutes. A seizure of this length may indicate status epilepticus, a prolonged seizure state that is life-threatening without rapid medical treatment.
- Another seizure begins before your child has fully recovered from the first. Repeated seizures without a recovery period between them are called cluster seizures.
- Your child does not regain consciousness after the jerking stops. A child who is unresponsive more than five minutes after the seizure ends requires emergency attention.
- Breathing difficulties develop during or after the seizure.
- A serious injury has occurred, such as a head injury or broken bone from a fall
- The seizure occurred in water
- This is your child’s first known seizure
Enrol in Seizure First Aid Training
A seizure can look frightening, but the response it calls for is something any parent can learn and keeps your child safer when a seizure happens. The people closest to a child with epilepsy are part of their care, and seizure first aid training is where parents build that readiness. Parents who complete the course know what to do when their child has a seizure.
FAQs
Can Children Outgrow Epilepsy?
Some children do outgrow their epilepsy, particularly those diagnosed with childhood absence epilepsy, which commonly resolves before or during the teenage years. Whether a child’s seizures will stop depends on the specific type and its cause.
What Is a Febrile Seizure?
A febrile seizure is a convulsion that occurs in young children, typically between six months and six years of age, when their body temperature rapidly rises during an illness. The seizure generally looks like a tonic-clonic episode and lasts only a few minutes, after which the child regains consciousness and recovers.
Can Seizures Happen While Asleep?
Seizures can occur during sleep, and some types of epilepsy are more likely to produce nocturnal seizures. A parent may notice their child making unusual sounds, moving abnormally, or waking in a confused state.
