What are febrile seizures and are they dangerous?

What the evidence says

A febrile seizure is a convulsion that happens in a young child because of a fever. The Canadian Paediatric Society explains that these seizures are caused by fever and typically happen between 6 months and 5 years of age, often as the first sign that a child even has a fever. During the seizure a child's body may stiffen, their eyes may roll back, and their arms and legs can jerk; they may briefly lose consciousness.

The good news is that despite how scary they look, they are not as dangerous as they appear, and most simple febrile seizures last only 30 seconds to two minutes with no lasting effects. The American Academy of Pediatrics guideline confirms that aside from a chance of it happening again, no long-term problems have been linked to simple febrile seizures, and children's risk of later epilepsy is only slightly above that of the general population. Even febrile seizures linked to routine childhood vaccines are considered harmless in the long run.

During a seizure, keep your child safe: lay them on their side on a soft, flat surface, clear away hard or sharp objects, don't hold them down or put anything in their mouth, and don't leave them alone. Most seizures stop by themselves within a couple of minutes.

You should still call your doctor after a first febrile seizure to check for the cause of the fever, and seek emergency care if a seizure lasts longer than 5 minutes, if breathing doesn't return to normal afterward, if your child doesn't wake up as expected, or if this is a very young infant (under 6 months) or the seizure has unusual features.