Patient's question:
How can you tell if your child has epilepsy?Doctor's answer:
One. Parents of children with epilepsy should distinguish between petit mal seizures. The brief loss of consciousness in petit mal seizures occurs suddenly and abruptly without convulsions. During an episode, the child may remain still, appear slightly pale, pause speech, and be unable to hold objects. Sometimes they may stand unsteadily. The onset usually occurs within 2 to 10 minutes. The child may not be aware of what is happening, so parents should be careful not to scare them.Two. When a child experiences a focal seizure, they may exhibit short-term twitching or numbness/tingling sensations on one side of the mouth, eyelids, fingers, toes, face, or limbs. The twitching may sometimes spread from the fingers to the upper limb and then to the opposite side. In pediatric epilepsy, psychomotor seizures in children have symptoms similar to petit mal seizures but last more than one minute, or involve various hallucinations, illusions, or unconscious movements such as sucking, chewing, smacking lips, undressing, or unbuttoning clothes. Parents should pay attention, as this could also be a symptom of epilepsy.