This page covers the different types of epileptic seizures seen in babies and infants, from birth up to around one year old.
What do seizures look like in babies and infants?
It can be hard to recognise seizures in babies and infants because often the signs are subtle (not obvious).
Because their brains haven’t yet developed, lots of babies have brief jerks or facial twitching that look similar to signs of epilepsy in older children.
These are just a part of normal development, usually from birth to six months old.
But these movements are more likely to be epilepsy if they:
- Are not triggered by activity
- Do not stop when you gently move your baby’s limbs
- Happen repeatedly in the same pattern
The different types of seizures seen in babies and infants are listed below.
Subtle seizures
These usually involve eye movements such as blinking, fluttering, rolling, rapid movements or a fixed gaze.
These can happen on their own or with other subtle movements such as sucking, chewing, lip-smacking or sticking out the tongue.
Subtle seizures can also involve babies moving other parts of their body as if rowing, swimming or cycling.
Sometimes, they can thrash around with their arms and legs.
Motor seizures
There are four types of motor seizures in babies and infants:
- Tonic seizures
- Clonic seizures
- Myoclonic seizures
- Spasms
These cause contractions (tightening) of the face, limbs or other muscles for long periods. Also, your baby’s torso may extend (stretch).
These can occur in one muscle or lots of muscles at the same time, on one or both sides of the body.
These seizures involve rhythmic jerking of the muscles. This may happen in just the face or the limbs.
If the jerking movements last a long time, your baby may weaken on the side of the body affected. But this is temporary.
This is called Todd’s paralysis and usually resolves (returns to normal) quickly.
These are very rapid single jerks. They are not rhythmic jerks but can repeat.
You might see them happen in just a finger, a single limb or in the whole body.
Some babies can have lots of myoclonic movements during sleep (the condition benign neonatal sleep myoclonus – repetitive myoclonic jerks that occur during sleep – usually happens from birth to six months old).
Spasms are similar to the seizures described above but are slower than myoclonic seizures and faster than tonic seizures.
Autonomic changes
All seizure types in babies and infants might also be accompanied by ‘autonomic changes’.
These are changes in the automatic functions of the body, such as heart rate, breathing rate and blood pressure.
Although these may all change during a seizure, your baby will still be breathing.
Febrile seizures
As your baby develops and grows, their seizures can change and become more obvious.
From around six months to six years of age, febrile seizures (also called ‘febrile convulsions’) may occur.
These seizures happen when a child has a fever or temperature.
A diagnosis of epilepsy isn’t usually necessary, because these are often isolated seizures with a known cause, e.g. an ear or throat infection that usually becomes clear a day or two later.
There is also a 1 in 50 chance of a child developing epilepsy if they have a history of febrile convulsions.
But some children may be at risk of having other seizure types because of:
- Abnormal development before the first febrile seizure took place
- A family history of non-febrile seizures
Infantile spasms (West syndrome)
Infantile spasms (West syndrome) usually happen in babies under one year of age, usually between four and eight months old.
These are very serious. If they happen to your baby, you should contact your doctor immediately.
Find out more about infantile spasms (West syndrome), including cause, diagnosis, symptoms, treatment and long-term outlook.
Longer seizures
It can be very distressing to see your baby experiencing seizures, but they’re usually brief, lasting from around 10 seconds to one to two minutes.
If, however, a seizure approaches five minutes, then you need to call 999.
