Huge Scare

Ellen suffered a febrile convulsion on Saturday evening while we were visiting friends in Gloucester. She had a sudden fever on Friday afternoon, but she wasn't acting too unlike herself. We decided to go ahead with our plans to visit friends in Gloucester since we wouldn't have a chance after this weekend with Baby #2 due in just over a month and then moving. Ellen was feverish, but was still acting ok. We arrived at our friends' (the Harrises) house at 17:00, had supper, then were talking in the lounge. Ellen fell asleep in my arms, but woke just after 19:00. She commented on their cat coming into the room, I gave her a drink of water, then suddenly her convulsion started. Her limbs stiffened and her eyes rolled back. Then she stopped breathing. She turned a pale greeny-grey colour and her lips turned purple. I thought my baby was going to die in my arms.  My friend tried pounding her back on her shoulder to try to get any water out that may have become caught in her throat, though we weren't sure this what was causing her to stop breathing.  I gave her a few breaths just to try to get some air in her.  After a 2-3 minutes (we think) from the beginning of the convulsion, she started to take very shallow breaths. I could see her lips going back to pink, then her face.  We were so relieved. During all of this, our friend called 999 and a paramedic showed up VERY quickly.  He did numerous tests on her and wrote down what had happened.  The ambulance arrived a little while later. Ellen laid in my lap completely dazed and non-reactive, which was very normal after a convulsion. Ellen and I rode in the ambulance to the emergency room. Jeff followed in the car.  We saw a nurse straight away, but the wait to see the paediatrician began.  Ellen ran around and was basically back to normal. Once we got to see the paediatrician, he diagnosed Ellen with tonsillitis.  To make sure it wasn't a bladder infection, though, he wanted a urine sample.  Despite our best attempts - Ellen hadn't drank very much since lunch - after 2 hours and a bottle of Amoxicillan, we and the staff gave up and discharged us... it was 1:45 in the morning. We drove to our friends house (the Gilmores), arrived about 2:00am.

Since then, we've been concentrating on keeping Ellen's temperature down by keeping her dressed coolly, taking her temperature loads, giving her Calpol (paracetamol) when able and making sure she drinks as much as possible.  She was much better today, but still has a slight temperature.  The fever could last a couple more days, but she needs the Amoxicillan through Saturday.  Lesson learned: Babies and young children can't regulate they're temperature until they're 6 or 7 years old due to the hypothalamus being underdeveloped until then.  I need to be much more vigilant with fevers, take her temperature often, give her paracetamol and/or ibuprofen regularly and keep her as cool as possible, even removing clothing, giving her cool drinks and a cool bath. Febrile convulsions can last 5-6 minutes (I really don't know how long it lasted for Ellen), but it felt like an eternity.  It is very unlikely that they'll stop breathing according to the paediatrician at the hospitl and our paediatrician friend.  If this happens to your child, cool them down immediately by removing clothing, go to a cool room or even outside, put a cool cloth on her neck and turn them on their side to help with breathing.  Unfortunately, it's more common than I ever knew and terribly frightening... but now I know more.