Affective convulsions - really scary
Some parents have asked for the topic of "child affect convulsions". No problem. Here is the most important thing you need to know.
Medically, these cramps are not a problem. But they can be absolutely terrifying for parents - especially when they occur for the first time. Affect spasms can occur from the age of one, peaking at around the age of two, half of the children who suffer from them no longer have them from the age of four and they have almost all disappeared by the time they start school.
What happens during an emotional spasm? A child gets so upset, gets so worked up about something that it either starts to turn blue or pale - and then actually faints. Often the child also twitches and convulses. Sounds very dramatic. But it is almost always harmless. The children quickly regain consciousness. And if it is clear that the trigger was an emotion, there is no need to worry from a medical point of view.
Examples: shock, pain, anger, fear ... Specifically: A large dog comes round the corner, the child struggles to breathe in fear and falls over. Or the child bumps into something very hard, is in pain, struggles to breathe and loses consciousness.
Medically, there are a few differential diagnoses that need to be looked at, namely genuine seizures or causes coming from the heart. But these are cases that certainly cannot be dealt with briefly here. To be on the safe side that your child is suffering from the harmless variant, you should definitely discuss the whole thing with your paediatrician. It will then quickly become clear whether further investigations are necessary.
The message is: it does exist and it is actually harmless. This will hopefully prevent not only the child from fainting, but also the parents from being frightened.
Further interesting tips
Blood sampling
Today we are focussing on taking blood samples. This is not such an uncritical issue in the paediatric practice because very few children find it cool. So here are a few things to bear in mind.
Monkeypox
Ever since monkeypox became a topic in the media, parents have been asking whether it is also relevant for humans here and whether there is cause for concern, especially for children of course. Reason enough for us to take a look at the topic.
Weaknesses weaken ..
One of my favourite sentences - from which a small but effective task can be derived: sit down and write down seven things that your child is particularly good at or that you particularly like about them. And then give him positive feedback every day during the week.