Hesperian Health Guides
Behavioral and Physical Changes in Children with Epilepsy
- A child may show aggressive or violent gestures before, during or after a seizure. For example, they may bite or feel a need to bite something.
- A child may lose consciousness and wake up feeling severely confused, briefly losing touch with reality. Seizures often cause fear, agitation, and other strong emotions, both for the child and parents. If parents and caregivers cannot talk about and understand their own feelings of shock, overwhelm, fear and sadness, they may scold the child too much and harm the child with their own frustrations.
- A child may lose control of their bladder and wet themselves during a seizure.
- Medicines that help control seizures may also change the child’s alertness, learning, moods and development.
Parents and caregivers must accept and love their children, including their experience with seizures and epilepsy. Epilepsy is neither the child’s nor the parents’ fault, and does not determine how the child will grow up. Parents, teachers, neighbors, other children and family members can all support a child’s physical, mental and emotional development rather than misunderstanding, punishing, and holding the child back.
This page was updated:04 Apr 2024