For parents, a child having a seizure is one of the most frightening experiences imaginable. While many childhood seizures are brief and isolated, others are more serious and persistent. To make the best treatment decisions possible, it’s important for parents to learn about seizure disorders and epilepsy and partner with the most experienced medical team available.
“An epilepsy doctor who can pinpoint the cause of the seizures and provide a range of treatment options can be life-changing for patients,” says Hiba A. Haider, MD, a board-certified neurologist with the University of Chicago Medicine.
Dr. Haider says there are two distinct times when the chances of developing epilepsy are the highest across the lifespan. One of those times is during a child’s first year of life. (The other is when adults reach 55 and older.)
Common causes of epilepsy in childhood include head injury, infection, lack of oxygen to the brain and atypical brain development, among others. Most childhood seizures are not associated with a definite cause, according to the Epilepsy Foundation.
And, a seizure doesn’t automatically mean that your child has epilepsy.
“There is an important difference between something that causes seizures, such as a high fever in a young child, and something that causes epilepsy, such as a severe head injury,” the site says.
Why the detection of seizures is so important
Regardless of the cause, detecting seizures as early as possible is important — particularly in infants and young children.
“While it is difficult to recognize seizures in infants, early detection is important,” says Emily Doll, MD, pediatric neurologist and specialist in childhood epilepsy at UChicago Medicine Comer Children’s. “Seizures are secondary to some other problem more often during infancy than at any other time of life.”
Because infancy is a time of tremendous brain development, the consequences of seizure can be more severe and impact the child’s development, Dr. Doll says. “In turn, undiagnosed seizures can lead to future trouble concentrating, remembering and ability to learn,” she explains. “It can even be life-threatening.”
Seizures are difficult to detect in infants because they don’t look like classic convulsions. Your child may pause their activity and gaze to the side, or move their arms or legs repeatedly and rhythmically or flex or extend their forearms for several seconds.
Or they may have repeated spasms, which can be pronounced or very subtle and involve “upward eye deviation or brief stiffness in the baby’s neck,” Dr. Doll explains.
She says that parents who are confident their child has had any of these symptoms should seek a specialist as soon as possible.
Choose medical specialists
When your child has a seizure, you want to learn the cause as soon as possible. That way you can follow the best path to treatment for your child. But not all pediatricians are experts in childhood seizures or epilepsy. So where do you go to get specific information about what’s happening with your child?
Pediatric epileptologists at UChicago Medicine Comer Children’s recommend consulting directly with a pediatric epilepsy specialist. Comer Children’s specialized “New Onset Seizure Clinic” will prioritize an evaluation for any child who experiences an unprovoked first seizure.
Comer Children’s is a Level 4 Epilepsy Center, equipped to provide the most complex forms of intensive monitoring, diagnosis and treatment. According to the National Association of Epilepsy Centers, Level 4 is the highest-level Epilepsy Center and can provide medical and surgical evaluation and treatment for children with complex epilepsy.
Once a child has been evaluated in the New Onset Seizure Clinic, specialists will focus on relieving immediate symptoms and providing a comprehensive diagnosis — then refer you back to your child’s primary care doctor or pediatrician for continued care.
Depending on your child’s diagnosis, they may be treated with medication, a specialized diet, even physical therapy or occupational therapy. Another treatment could be surgery, but it’s not the first option for children with epilepsy, according to experts at Comer Children’s Hospital Pediatric Epilepsy Center.
For the best outcomes, it’s important to work with pediatric specialists to develop an individualized treatment plan for your child.
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