First aid care may be required if the child has a violent or vigorous convulsive seizures. In such a seizure, the child rapidly loses awareness, and develops violent stiffening followed by vigorous jerking of the limbs.

Children rarely die from a seizure. A single seizure is not life threatening.

There is little you can do to stop the seizure, but you can follow the DOs and DON’Ts to help the child:

DO:

1. Keep calm. Don’t panic
   • You need to think clearly to help the child.
2. Pay attention and observe
   • What you observe during the seizure (sequence of events, posture, length of seizure)
3. Prevent injury
   • Keep the child where he or she is
   • Only move them if they are in dangerous situations, like on a road, or in a high place
   • Do move things away from the child
4. Slowly turn them over onto their sides
   • This helps to prevent them from choking on their saliva, or if they should vomit
5. Be sensitive and supportive
   • Speak calmly and softly. Encourage onlookers not to crowd around the child

DON’T:

1. Do not hold the person down.
   • Allow the seizure to take its course.
2. Do not put anything into the mouth, like a spoon or key.
   • This is unnecessary and may cause injury to the mouth and tongue.
3. Don’t give food, or medicines by mouth.
   • Wait until the seizure stops and the child awakens fully before offering food.
4. Don’t perform CPR or mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
   • The child is not going to stop breathing, or die from a brief seizure.

Allow the child to sleep after the seizure.

IMPORTANT : Seek medical help if the seizure lasts longer than 5 minutes.

Note :

If your child has recurrent, prolonged seizures, then your doctor may instruct you on the use of Rectal Diazepam during a seizure.