Dr Leo Odudu, Medical Director of Emel Hospital, Festac, has urged parents to seek prompt medical care for children experiencing seizures, describing the condition as treatable and not a spiritual attack.
Odudu, in an interview with reporters on Sunday, explained that seizures result from abnormal electrical activity in the brain. They may manifest as jerky or stretching movements, behavioural or mood changes, repetitive behaviours, fainting spells, or loss of consciousness.
He clarified that a seizure is a single event that may occur once in a person’s lifetime, while epilepsy refers to a condition characterised by recurrent seizures.
According to available literature, about 2 to 3 per cent of children experience seizures.
Odudu noted that the causes of seizures in infants and children vary widely and can stem from factors related to the mother, pregnancy, delivery, or the baby itself.
In newborns, he listed causes including perinatal asphyxia, hypoglycaemia, neonatal sepsis, neonatal meningitis, birth trauma, electrolyte imbalance, severe neonatal jaundice, maternal medications, congenital defects, extremely low birth weight, and inborn errors of metabolism.
For older children, common causes include meningitis, severe sepsis, electrolyte imbalance, severe malaria, and head injury.
The paediatrician identified febrile convulsions as one of the most common childhood seizures, affecting about 10 to 18 per cent of Nigerian children aged three months to five years. These usually resolve once the underlying fever is treated.
He emphasised that a mother’s wellbeing during pregnancy is crucial, as it can influence the risk of seizures after birth. Maternal infections (including those associated with TORCHES syndrome), medications, alcohol, tobacco, cocaine, smoking, and delivery complications can predispose a child to seizures.
TORCHES syndrome is an acronym for toxoplasmosis, rubella, herpes, syphilis, and cytomegalovirus.
Odudu added that hormonal disorders such as hypo- and hyperthyroidism, hypertension leading to severe pre-eclampsia, and diabetes can also increase the risk of seizures in newborns. Harmful substances consumed during pregnancy can cross the placenta, alter the baby’s brain metabolism, and cause withdrawal symptoms after birth.
He identified prolonged labour, birth asphyxia, and extreme prematurity as leading causes of seizures in the newborn period. Birth trauma from instrumental deliveries and delayed labour due to poor obstetric care also contribute.
Some genetic defects and chromosomal abnormalities can predispose children to seizures. Febrile seizures, in particular, often run in families — with more than a 50 per cent chance that a parent of an affected child also experienced them in childhood.
Seizure manifestations differ across age groups and can be difficult to recognise in the first three months of life. In infants, signs may include repeated blinking, lip smacking, eye rolling, or jerking of a single limb. In older children, common signs are jerking of one or both limbs, teeth clenching, staring into space, and failure to respond to calls.
Advice to Parents
Odudu advised parents to remain calm during a seizure, remove nearby dangers, clear the child’s airway, and place the child on their side to prevent choking. For febrile seizures, he recommended tepid sponging with lukewarm water and rectal paracetamol (where available).
“On no account should anything be given through the mouth during a seizure,” he warned.
He strongly discouraged harmful traditional practices such as putting onion juice into the eyes, applying local pomades or concoctions, giving cow or human urine to drink, or placing a child’s feet in fire.
Children should be taken to hospital immediately after a seizure for proper evaluation and treatment. Diagnosis is usually based on the pattern of abnormal movements, with investigations such as EEG, MRI, blood tests, and lumbar puncture used where necessary.
Seizures caused by fever, electrolyte imbalance, or low blood sugar typically stop once the underlying condition is corrected. Some children may require long-term anti-seizure medications, while severe congenital defects can lead to lifelong seizures. In advanced cases, surgery has been used successfully to reduce seizure frequency.
Odudu urged pregnant women to attend antenatal care regularly, avoid alcohol, tobacco and local concoctions, maintain good nutrition, and disclose any underlying medical conditions.
He advised parents witnessing a child’s first seizure to remain calm and seek immediate medical attention to determine the cause.
“Seizures are not spiritual attacks; they are caused by medical conditions. If a child has febrile seizures, it does not mean the child will have seizures for life. Drugs can control seizures,” he said.
“Giving cow or human urine, squeezing onion juice into the eyes or mouth, administering local pomades, or putting the child’s feet in fire are not remedies. Also, touching a person having seizures will not cause another person to develop seizures. That belief is completely false.”
