Febrile Seizures: What to Do When a Young Child Has a Seizure With a Fever

A child with a temperature goes stiff, their eyes roll back, and their limbs jerk. If you have never seen it, it looks like the worst thing you have ever seen. Usually it is not. This article explains what is happening, what to do in the first few minutes, and when to phone 999 without stopping to think.

Please note: general information, not personal medical advice, and not a substitute for paediatric first aid training. Figures and guidance are correct as at October 2026 and drawn from the NHS. If a child is unwell now, phone 111, or 999 in an emergency. See nhs.uk/conditions/febrile-seizures.

What a febrile seizure is

A febrile seizure is a seizure brought on by a fever. It happens in young children, most often between six months and six years old, and it is far more common than people expect. About 5 in 100 children have one at some point before their sixth birthday. The fever behind it is usually something ordinary: a cold or an ear infection, the kind of thing that sends half a nursery home in February.

What you see can be frightening. The child may stiffen, lose consciousness and shake, their eyes may roll back, they may vomit or wet themselves, and their lips may turn a dusky colour for a few seconds. Most last two to three minutes, and the NHS says it is rare for one to pass ten. Afterwards the child is usually drowsy and floppy, and will often sleep it off within the hour.

Now the part nobody tells you until it is over. A febrile seizure is not epilepsy, and it is not caused by anything you did or failed to do. Around 30 in 100 children who have one will have another during a later illness, so a second seizure is not a sign that things are getting worse. Between 2 and 7 in 100 go on to develop epilepsy. Knowing that in advance is worth a lot at three in the morning.

What to do in the first five minutes

Your instinct will be to scoop the child up and hold them tight. Do not. Moving a child who is convulsing can hurt them, and holding their limbs still does nothing to shorten the seizure. The job in those few minutes is duller than instinct suggests: keep the child safe where they are, and time it.

Look at the clock the moment it begins. You will badly misjudge the length otherwise, and that length is the most useful thing you can tell a 999 call handler or a GP. Clear the space around the child of anything hard or hot, including the mug of tea in your hand. Put a folded jumper under their head, or cup their head in your hands. Stay at their level and keep talking, even though they cannot hear you, because it keeps you steady too.

Once the jerking has stopped, and only then, roll the child onto their side with their head tilted slightly back, so the airway is clear and anything in their mouth can drain out. With a baby under one, hold them along your forearm with their head lower than their body. Stay with them until they come round.

Four things not to do:

• Do not move or restrain the child while they are still convulsing.
• Do not put anything in their mouth, including your own fingers. They will not swallow their tongue, and you can be bitten badly.
• Do not undress them or sponge them with cool water to bring the temperature down. The NHS is explicit about this one: a high temperature is a natural and healthy response to infection, and cooling the skin does not help.
• Do not put them in the car and drive to A&E while they are still having a seizure or are unconscious. Phone 999 and stay where you are.

The six times you phone 999

The NHS lists six situations where a febrile seizure needs an ambulance or A&E straight away. Learn them now, because you will not be reading a website while it is happening.

• It is the child’s first seizure.
• The seizure lasts longer than five minutes.
• The child is having difficulty breathing.
• The stiffness or twitching is on one side of the body only.
• The child is more sleepy than usual for more than an hour after the seizure stops.
• The child has more than one seizure within 24 hours.

There is a seventh reason, and it is the one clinicians care most about: you are worried it might be meningitis. Do not wait for a rash, because not every child with meningitis gets one and it often appears late. In a baby or young child the NHS says to phone 999 for a very high temperature, 38C or more under three months old or 39C or more between three and six months, for a very low temperature or cold hands and feet, for a weak or high-pitched cry, a bulging soft spot on the head, refusing feeds or floppiness, or a rash that does not fade under a pressed glass. Trust the picture of a child who is getting worse, rather than any single symptom on a list.

Two things you will be told that are wrong

The first is cooling. Open a window, strip the child off, sponge them down: standard advice for years, still circulating in old leaflets and family group chats, and no longer what the NHS recommends. It never shortened a seizure anyway.

The second is harder to give up, because it offers you something to do. Paracetamol and ibuprofen do not prevent febrile seizures. Research cited by Cambridge University Hospitals is blunt: Calpol or Nurofen does not prevent a further febrile convulsion. Give them if a child is uncomfortable, which is reason enough, but not in the belief that you are heading off a seizure. Otherwise you will quietly blame yourself the next time one happens, and you will be wrong to.

Three medicine rules worth knowing before you need them. Never give aspirin to a child under 16. Do not give paracetamol to a baby under two months, or ibuprofen to one under three months. Do not alternate the two unless a doctor or nurse tells you to. Your pharmacist will talk this through for nothing, and they are good at it.

Afterwards: what you write down and who you tell

Once the child is settled, write it down while it is fresh. Note the time it started and stopped, what you saw, whether they lost consciousness or hurt themselves, how long they took to come round, and their temperature. You may also need an incident form. This is not paperwork for its own sake: it is what a GP will ask for, and nobody remembers it accurately later.

Then tell your supervising social worker. The call after a first seizure is exactly what an out-of-hours line is for. They will usually arrange for the child to be seen by a GP, who may order tests if the cause of the fever is unclear. The child’s social worker and birth family also need to know, and you will not be left to work out who tells whom.

If the child is old enough to talk about it, they may be frightened and have no memory of it. Keep the explanation short and honest. They had a high temperature, their body shook for a couple of minutes, you stayed with them, and they are fine. That is enough. Looking after a child’s health day to day is a big part of fostering, and almost all of it is far less dramatic.

You won’t have to do this alone

Nobody becomes a foster carer because they feel ready for a child to have a seizure on their kitchen floor. People become ready because they became foster carers, and somebody showed them what to do. You will never be asked to diagnose anything. The standard is not paramedic. It is a calm adult who knows when to phone, and what to do in the four minutes before somebody arrives.

Behind the training sits a supervising social worker who knows you and the child, and a 24 hour on-call line answered by people rather than a machine. Ofsted inspected us in July 2025 and rated us Outstanding in all three judgements, and what that rating really measures is whether carers are supported when something goes wrong at an awkward hour. We are also looking for carers for babies and toddlers across London, and a spare bedroom is not always needed, because a baby under two can sleep in a cot in your room.

It is completely normal to read this and wonder whether you could cope. Most carers wondered that. Then it happened, and they found they could.

Frequently asked questions

Do febrile seizures cause brain damage or affect a child’s development?

No. A simple febrile seizure does not damage the brain and does not affect a child’s learning or development, however distressing it looks while it is happening. Between 2 and 7 in 100 children who have febrile seizures later develop epilepsy, so the large majority do not.

Can I stop it happening again by giving Calpol when the child has a temperature?

No. Paracetamol and ibuprofen do not prevent febrile seizures or reduce how often they happen. Give them when a child is uncomfortable with a fever, which is reason enough, but a seizure afterwards is not a sign you gave the medicine too late.

Do I need medical training or first aid qualifications before I can foster?

No. You need no medical or care background to apply. Paediatric first aid is part of the preparation every GLF carer completes before a child is placed, alongside the Skills to Foster course, and is kept up to date throughout your approval.

How does pay work, and will I be left to manage a child’s health appointments on my own?

GLF pays one fixed weekly fee per child while they are placed with you. As at October 2026 that is £479.50 a week for a child under 11 and £507.50 for a child aged 11 or over, rising by roughly £100 to £200 where a child has higher needs. That one fee covers both the costs of caring and a reward element, so there are no one-off payments. Your supervising social worker helps you plan health appointments and the recording around them.