AAP Does Not Recommend Preventive Treatment for Simple Febrile Seizures

Febrile seizures affect 2% to 5% of children between ages 6 and 60 months. Simple febrile seizures are generalized, brief, and isolated and occur in neurologically normal children. Simple febrile seizures are not associated with learning or behavioral problems, are associated with, at most, a very small increased risk for later development of epilepsy (an association often attributed to underlying genetic predisposition), but do have a high rate of recurrence. An AAP subcommittee on febrile seizures has updated the 1999 clinical practice guideline for long-term management of children with simple febrile seizures. The subcommittee focused on studies published during the past decade that evaluated the safety and effectiveness of treatments ai…