Benign Familial Neonatal Convulsions
• Presentation:
- Age: typically occur in first 2-15 days of life
* Seizure types: Seizures are generally clonic (rhythmic jerking of one or both arms and legs) but may start with more subtle staring, chewing movements or an unusual cry.
* Seizures start from either side of the brain, often alternating from the left to the right on subsequent seizures.
• Diagnosis:
- This diagnosis is made in children who have a family history of infants who developed seizures in the newborn period but outgrow seizures and develop normally.
• Causes:
- Genetic causes: Typically there is a history of seizures in either the mother or the father which occurred during their first two weeks of life. Rarely a history of newborn seizures affecting only a grandparent but not the parent can be obtained.
• Triggers:
Seizures typically occur immediately after waking from sleep.
• Prognosis:
- Although these infants may have many seizures per day (as many as several per hour) the prognosis is good.
- Despite the frequency of seizures these infants continue to develop normally (eat appropriately, spend an appropriate amount of time asleep and awake as other newborns do, and are appropriately alert when awake).
• Treatment: no medications are needed