WHEN A CHILD WITH FEVER CONVULSES

As we are in the raining season we would have more and more people coming down with malaria (I am recovering from it now )especially children below 6years of age.
Theirs is a lot more serious as many of them tend to come down with febrile convulsion i.e when a child with fever has an episode(S) of convulsion.
Many times this happens at home or school, the caregivers are scared that the child would die,they are shocked ,they panic and are at loss for what to do.
There are however various harmful traditional practices that have been handed from generation to generation that have been used and are still being used today; some of such practices include:
-Burning the fingers and toes of the child on a stove
-Beating the child with broomsticks
-Giving the child kerosene,urine,crudeoil or cow dung to drink
-sticking a spoon, fingers or any hard object in the child’s mouth
-Applying onions, pepper on the child’s eyes or nostrils
-Scarification marks on the face and body of the child
-Rubbing palm kernel oil all over the child and pouring some in the mouth
-Covering the child with thick wrappers or blankets.
-Hanging the child downside up and hitting the back of the child e.t.c
These practices would do all harm and no good to the child and worsen the situation.ranging from severe burns, aspiration of saliva and any of the liquid into the lungs causing severe lung disease,severe pains and discomfort, suffocation and could also worsen the already high temperature and cause the child to convulse even more.
Febrile convulsion in clear terms is when a child with fever convulses and it is a common cause of convulsion in childhood and affect children within the age of 5months to 6years of age. there are several causes of this condition but the most common in our environment is malaria. others are bacterial infections that affect the ear, nose and throat of the child and also that of the urinary tract there is also genetic predisposition for this condition.
The symptoms of this condition is just as the definition; fever i.e. an increase temperature usually as high as 40degrees centigrade, there may be a history of cough,sorethroat,ear pain or turging,pain while urinating, symptoms will depend on the cause of the fever usually.
The convulsive episode is usually describe as the child suddenly twitching the limbs, the body is stiff with upward rolling of the eyes and drooling of saliva and the child is unresponsive. it could last for as short as a few seconds to several minutes after which the child may defecate or pass urine, have abnormal or irregular breathing and also look dazed and unaware of the environment.
WHAT TO DO WHEN IT HAPPENS;
-let the child be left to convulse till it wears off and the duration should be noted and also the form of the seizure noted by those present.
-don’t rub any substance on the child.
-turn the child’s face to the left side to prevent the tongue from falling back or cause suffocation or excess saliva from being aspirated into the lungs.
-remove the child’s clothing to help reduce temperature, do not use any wrappers or blankets to cover the child.
-tepid sponge the child after the episode has ended u may also administer antipyretics like paracetamol.
-bring the child to the nearest clinic or hospital to be seen by a doctor.
Investigations that would be carried out to find out the cause of the fever and convulsion and would include a total sepsis screening which involves the blood(malaria test, bloodculture,),urine culture, sputum culture, spinal tap for cerebrospinal fluid analysis(lumbar puncture) others are a full blood count.
Treatment will be based on outcome of the investigation done but the child would be commenced on antimalaria, antipyretic, antibiotics and intravenous fluids.
In concluding I would tell you this for sure, febrile convulsion as scary as it may be when it happens usually with fear that the child would die is very straight forward  in treatment and the prognosis is very good.