Ways to prevent fits

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Ways to prevent fits – July 1st, 2003

Dr.K.Vellyappan, Pediatrician.
It is very normal for parents to worry when children get fits. When they get fits both their eyes get roll up and they become unconscious with saliva coming out from their mouth. If these symptoms continue, their lips turn blue too. If it further continues, it can pose a threat to their life.

Small babies are also prone to fits. When the child is born, the oxygen that goes to the brain of the child gets stopped, for unknown reasons. Then the baby gets fits. In complicated pregnancies, i.e. if the baby is big in size and the mother’s outlet is small, when the baby comes out of the mother’s womb, there are chances for the baby’s head to get hurt and subsequently in the brains it might bleed or the blood circulation might get blocked. In these situations, the chances for the baby to get fits are high. Also as the pre-matured babies weigh less, they are also prone to fits. The reason is due to the lack of sugar, calcium and magnesium in the blood. If germs attacks the brains of the babies, then they get fits.

Fits that attacks the older children:

When the children’s fever is high, they get fits. 5% of the children are affected by this condition. If their fever increases and exceeds 38.5 degrees or 102 ferine heat they get fits. It affects the children till they turn six. The reason is mainly because of the germs that affect their throat and tonsils. The fits due to fever lasts between one to ten minutes. They regain their self consciousness once the fits is over. In this case, the brains are unaffected. For certain children they get fits when ever they have fever. But generally it happens only once or twice. This fits is totally harmless. It can also be hereditary. Those children are more prone to frequent fits.

There are also other reasons for this. When the children have menigitz fever that is concerned with the brain fever and if they get fits due to this, then the fits might prolong even for half an hour or an hour. In this case, once the fits is over, they don’t regain their consciousness. They will look so pale and weak.

If children suffer from severe head injuries resulting in a blood clot, this may also lead to the child suffering from fits. Similarly when the child has brain tumor, they may get fits too.

If the doctor diagnoses that fits is not due to fever, various tests such as special X-ray scan, CAT Scan/ NMRI Scan can be carried out. In conjunction with this elechtroencephalogram(EEG) test will also be done. If all the tests turn out to be normal and if the child still gets fits, then this could be a condition of epilepsy. For the children with epilepsy, it could be seen that the brain waves might be altered in certain parts of the brains.. There are different kinds of epilepsies like Grandmal epilepsy. The most common is petitmal Epileps and temporalobe epilepsy. For the children affected with this kind of fits, the fits can continue for a long period.

What are the precautions one has to take when somebody gets fits?

(Continuation in the next issue)