Seizures can also change toddler’s speech. Some abnormality in the neurological or behavioral pattern is seen in people with seizures. When a sudden interruption or a disturbance occurs in the brain’s electrical activity, Seizure occurs. Recurrent seizures causing repeated jerking of muscles (called Convulsions) is termed as Epilepsy.
1 out of every 10 Americans will tend to develop a seizure at some age in his life. In the US, about 2,000,000 people suffer from a seizure in a month. There are more than 20 types of seizure disorders. Your toddler’s speech can be changed due to some type of seizure. About 1-2% of the US population are affected by Epilepsy. The number of sufferers among the age group above 60 years is almost the same as in children under 10 years of age. About 50% of people below 25 and 25% of below 5 years of age develop the disease. Every year approximately 1,25,000 new cases of epilepsy are diagnosed. A significant number of adults and children have still not been diagnosed or treated.
In most cases the seizures are not life-threatening, which may develop into a life-threatening condition if not treated for a longer time. Seizures accompanied by repeated loss of consciousness for lengthy period and severe discomfort in breathing can be extremely hazardous. Some undiagnosed seizures may also develop conditions more severe and difficult to manage.
Motor seizures result in the change in the muscle activities in a body. Most common symptoms involve abnormal movements like sudden jerking of finger or sudden stiffening of a part of the body. Prolonged weakness may also occur affecting speech and coordinated body movements. This attack lasts for few minutes to less than an hour.
In newborns, Epileptic syndromes include benign neonatal convulsions; familial benign neonatal convulsions; early myoclonic encephalopathy and severe idiopathic status epilepticus. Identifiable metabolic conditions or infections associated with any complications during or after birth cause seizures in most newborns. Any seizures caused due to transient metabolic conditions in newborns, which show normal results for clinical and EEG tests; do not have epilepsy usually nor they require any prolonged anti-epileptic therapy. The newborns whose seizures tend to affect their brain structure are at higher risk of developing epilepsy at later stages.
