Thursday, August 6, 2009

Scary Convulsions

On Tuesday Navya was having slight fever and upset stomach. I decided to work from home as Navya was very cranky. And then Navya's temperature started rising and within a minute Navya stopped crying, her body shivered and became stiff, eyes rolled upward. I got so scared I can't even describe here. We immediately took her to hospital, doctor wanted to keep her under observation for a day and then we had to admit her there. Thankfully, Navya did not get temperature after that but had stomach infection. She is recovering well from it now.
We got to know from the doctor that it was a Convulsion. Convulsions are caused by sudden rise in temperature. Young children between the ages of 6 months to 6 years can get it. Young children's Nervous system is not matured and it can not take the sudden rise in body temp. Once a child gets it then there are chances are there that it will happen again. So now we need to take care that whenever she gets fever we need to give her the prescribed medicine till the age of 6 years. Thankfully these convulsions are harmless. But as the child looses consciousness there are chances of accident. Usually such convulsions last for 2-4 minutes. One should shake the child, and loosen the cloths for easy breathing. And one should not panic.
Huh, but how can you not panic :(. That's why I thought of sharing this with you, so in case you face such situation please don’t panic, turn your child on one side; incase he/she vomits it wont choke him/her. Once the child regains consciousness take her to the doctor. After convulsion there are some tests for which they need to take fluid from backbone. But to avoid this doctor may ask to keep your child under observation for a day and monitor the temperature.
I hope this information helps you.