Cramps in the child: causes, symptoms, emergency care

The most common cause of febrile seizures in children is high body temperature with colds and viral diseases. We, the parents, must necessarily have the skills of providing emergency care to your child in a convulsive syndrome and be on the alert all the time when our child falls ill and his body temperature rises.

Seizure syndrome in children is a very serious condition, because during a seizure episode, respiratory activity stops and the child's brain can suffer from a lack of oxygen.

Therefore, in this article we will consider the recommendations of reputable pediatricians about what to do and how to help children in similar situations at home.

CONTENTS

Causes of seizures

In young children, the development of convulsive seizures can occur both against a background of various neurological and somatic diseases, and among the overall health.

This is explained by the anatomical and physiological characteristics of the child's body: the brain is relatively large, the brain tissue contains a lot of water, the nervous system is very sensitive to lack of oxygen, which makes the child prone to convulsive conditions. Children with perinatal encephalopathy, increased intracranial pressure, hydrocephalus, spasmophilia, dehydration are especially prone to convulsions. Often, the development of convulsive syndrome is a metabolic disorder, present during the period of newborn and associated with a deficiency of glucose, calcium, magnesium, amino acid imbalance.

Whatever the reason for the seizure, the main task of the parents is to discover it. "It's impossible to notice cramps!" - the reader will confidently say and will be wrong.

Symptoms and signs of convulsive syndrome

In newborns

In a newborn baby, convulsions can occur as jerks of facial muscles moving to the handle and / or leg on one side. Sometimes a sign of convulsions is the turn of the eyes and head to the side, grimaces, stretching of the lips with proboscis, sucking and smacking movements. Often, convulsive readiness manifests itself in general flinches, trembling of hands and chin.

A young inexperienced mother may not attach importance to these symptoms, taking them for the chaotic movements of the newborn, then identifying the convulsive syndrome and its timely treatment will be delayed.

In infants

In contrast to the newborn , infants have seizures with a more pronounced motor component, including twitching of the muscle groups of the limbs, tilting the head, flexing the trunk with a "bridge," raising the arms and legs to the sides. Seizures occur against the background of loss of consciousness, often accompanied by vomiting, pallor or cyanosis of the skin, a decrease in muscle tone.("Obmyak," says Mom.) Sometimes muscle contractions are observed only on one side of the body. Occasionally the convulsive syndrome of the infants proceeds in the form of a short-term stop of the eye with easy eye-sideways. Who will be able to guess that this is the equivalent of seizures? Anyone who is not related to medicine, having noticed such a state, will decide that the child is concentrating on considering an object that attracted his attention. The attack can be accompanied by sucking, smacking, pulling the lips with the proboscis. Repetition of such symptoms should make my mother suspect a misfortune from the nervous system and turn to a neurologist.

Children with increased excitability in the first year of life may develop seizures with respiratory arrest, which occur after the negative emotions of associated with pain or fear: against a background of loud crying, the child stops breathing, turns pale, turns blue, throws back his head and loses consciousness. Such convulsions in the medical language are called affective-respiratory .After a few seconds, the breathing is restored, and the child comes to his senses. If the child is inclined to this development of events, you must switch his attention from negative experiences to an interesting subject or phenomenon to prevent the development of seizures.

In children of the first year of life convulsive syndrome can develop against the background of spasmophilia, a disease characterized by a decrease in the amount of calcium and an increase in the level of phosphates in the serum, which leads to an increase in neuromuscular excitability.

The disease can occur in a latent form, sometimes manifested by lightning contractions of the facial muscles or muscles of the extremities. But this remains unnoticed for the mother and does not lead to any violations.

With obvious spasmophilia in the child on the background of anxiety, fright, a spasm of the glottis can occur with a brief respiratory arrest. The child pales and loses consciousness. Her lips and fingertips turn blue and cramps often occur. After that, a deep breath follows, the child comes to, cries, but quickly calms down and falls asleep.

Sometimes, instead of spasms, there is a spasm of the muscles of the hand or foot, lasting from several minutes to several days.

What to do: emergency help with convulsive syndrome

During the convulsive attack with breathing stops it is necessary to splash in the face with water, bring to the nose a cotton wool with ammonia, pat on the cheeks, blow in the nose, pinch, shake the child - these actions lead to irritationrespiratory center and stimulate the restoration of respiration.

When a child is examined, the concentration of calcium in the blood decreases, which dictates the treatment tactics. The child is prescribed inside calcium preparations: 5% solution of gluconate or calcium lactate, 1% solution of calcium chloride. Be sure to drink milk to prevent irritation of the gastric mucosa.

Febrile convulsions in a child at high temperature

The most common cause of seizures in young children is a fever on the background of influenza or ARVI. High fever accelerates metabolic processes in the brain tissue, and this requires an increased oxygen content in the blood, while the inflammatory process in the airways( swelling of the mucous membrane of the respiratory tract and congestion of mucus in them) makes it difficult for oxygen to enter the blood. The brain, testing oxygen starvation( hypoxia), tries to reduce the consumption of oxygen, narrowing the cerebral vessels, which further intensifies hypoxia. This vicious circle leads, in the end, to the development of seizures( from the Latin febrilis - "fever"). Febrile convulsions of are more frequent than once, sometimes can be repeated with this disease for 1-2 days or with subsequent illnesses in children with an unfavorable neurological background.

Emergency care for febrile convulsions in children

If the baby's temperature is approaching 39 ° C, chills, shaking of the hands and chin, the skin became pale and acquired a "marble" pattern, and the child became sluggish or excited, he is onthreshold of seizure attack .Do not wait for the further development of events, but start to act. Read the algorithm: what and how to do!

Undress the baby, wipe off his body with a sponge moistened with a warm solution of

( 30-32 ° C), consisting of equal parts of water, vodka and 9% vinegar.

Put a moistened napkin on your head and on the area of large vessels( neck, axillary and inguinal folds) - bubbles with cold water.

Increase the air speed around the child with a fan or fan. Open the window or window in the room where the child is, so that the air is enriched with oxygen. Drink with cool tea, juice or water.

Antipyretic preparations can be given any containing paracetamol: tylenol, kalpol, efferalgan, panadol - not exceeding the age-related dose.

When vomiting , do not try to give medicine through the mouth, it will immediately come out, and make an enema with analgin or enter an antipyretic agent in the form of a candle.

A single dose of paracetamol for a child under 1 year is 25-50 mg, up to 5 years - 100-150 mg, over 6 years - 200-250 mg. In a day you can take 2-3 times.

Do not forget about medicinal substances that expand the peripheral network and increase heat transfer: papaverine, no-shpu, dibazol, nicotinic acid.

If the seizure is still developing, the child loses consciousness, suddenly turns pale, the nasolabial triangle and the tips of the fingers appear cyanotic, the eyes roll up or the pupils are fixed at one point, the teeth tightly squeezed, and the limbs or the whole body convulsively tremble, the breathing becomes intermittent,"Snoring", for a few seconds, a breath may stop. Call an ambulance!

Before the arrival of the ambulance, free the child from the shy clothes, open the window to increase the influx of fresh air, make sure that the child does not hit the cot wall, his head should be turned sideways so as not to choke on saliva or vomit.

Do not try to open the jaw to infuse a medicine. Applying excessive zeal, you risk breaking your child's teeth, and forcibly injected medication can get into the respiratory tract.

Try to reduce the heat by physical methods of cooling, the rest will be done by an ambulance doctor.

After recovery, you will have to contact a neurologist for advice and possible further follow-up.

As a rule, febrile convulsions are not evidence of severe damage to the nervous system and completely disappear after 5-6 years. And before this age, mom should carefully monitor the temperature rise in any disease and prevent its rapid rise.

The house should always have antipyretic, antihistamines and soothing drugs so that the disease is not taken by surprise.

If a convulsive syndrome is detected at any age, the child should be examined in a neurological hospital to establish its cause. Modern diagnostic equipment allows you to conduct a survey in a short time and painless for the baby. And the further treatment of the patient depends on the establishment of the cause.

Seizures that occur against the background of high temperature, with heat and sun impact, affective-respiratory cramps are usually single and short-term, and therefore do not affect the psychomotor development of the child. In other cases, the convulsive syndrome indicates the pathology of the central nervous system and is accompanied by a delay in development.

Children with neurological diseases prone to developing seizures should be observed by a neurologist. The question of the appointment of anticonvulsants is decided for each child individually. It is necessary to discuss with the doctor in advance the question of the possibility of preventive reception of anticonvulsants in case of the threat of any infectious disease.