Infant Seizures | Symptoms and Causess

It is painful for a parent to watch the child they love dearly have a seizure. Thankfully, most seizures do not cause harm to the child, and children typically respond well to medications to control seizures. Seizures in infants or newborns are often an indication of neurologic damage from hypoxic brain injury during birth. This page will examine and discuss infant seizures, how they relate to neurologic birth injuries, and how they are commonly treated.

Infant Seizures and Birth Injuries

Seizures occur when abnormal electrical patterns in the brain cause a sudden surge of movement or activity in the brain. You can think of seizure as sort of a short circuit in a computer. Brain activity is dramatically altered because of unwanted electrical activity. Normally, there is a balance of cells in the brain that control the excitement or inhibition of messages being sent to brain cells. However, when there is too much or too little activity within the brain cells, the imbalance from these chemical changes leads to sudden surges in the brain, causing seizures.

Seizures in newborns are unique from seizures in older children and adults. Seizures in newborns or infants are fragmented and short because the brain has yet to develop fully. Although some infant seizures are related to genetic conditions such as epilepsy, many infant seizures are symptoms of brain damage during childbirth from trauma or oxygen deprivation. Common birth injuries or complications that can result in infant seizures include

• Oxygen Deprivation During Childbirth: Infant seizures are often an early symptom of underlying neurologic damage caused by oxygen deprivation during labor and delivery. Fetal oxygen deprivation during pregnancy and childbirth is one of the leading causes of brain related birth injuries. Disruption or restriction of oxygen and/or blood flow to a baby during pregnancy or delivery can quickly cause cells in the brain to decay and die, resulting in permanent brain damage. There are a number of events and complications during pregnancy and childbirth that can potentially interfere with oxygen supply to the baby. When there is brain injury or trauma to an infant, seizures are often one of the first and strongest indicators. Nearly 80% of neonatal seizures are attributable to oxygen deprivation.
• Placenta Abnormalities or Complications: abnormalities or complications involving the placenta are just one of the various obstetric complications that can potentially be related to infant seizures. The placenta play a key role in oxygen and nutrient delivery to the baby and there are number of known complications that can affect its normal functioning. Failure to diagnose or properly manage placental complications can result in oxygen deprivation and brain damage and infant seizure may be the first sign.
• Prolonged Labor / Delayed C-Section: Infant seizures can also be related to prolonged or stressful labor and delivery. Labor and delivery are physically strenuous experiences for all babies. If it goes on too long or becomes too stressful, doctors should intervene with an emergency C-section to avoid any harm to the baby. Unfortunately, many doctors fail to recognize or respond to signs of fetal distress and allow labor to continue. Often this is further complicated by things such as shoulder dystocia or undiagnosed fetal macrosomia, making vaginal delivery unsafe and problematic.
• Head Trauma (from forceps or vacuum pump): Infant seizures may also be associated with the use of birth assistance tools such as forceps or vacuum pump extractors to facilitate difficult vaginal deliveries. When not used carefully and with a high degree of skill, these tools can and frequently do cause injury to babies. Although birth assistance tools usually cause external physical trauma, such as nerve damage or bone fractures, they can also result in external head trauma that ends up causing internal brain damage.
• Infection: infections that can cause seizures include group B strep, herpes encephalitis, meningitis, cytomegalovirus, and toxoplasmosis. These infections can occur after or during delivery. Oftentimes, the mother can transmit an untreated infection to the baby through the birth canal. If the infection is diagnosed early it can be easily treated and prevent it from being passed to the baby.

Different Types of Infant Seizures

There are different subtypes of infant seizures that are classified by the location of the electric activity in the brain, the severity of the brain interruption, and the body’s response to the seizure.

• Focal (Partial) seizure: A focal seizure or partial seizure occurs when there is sudden electrical activity in a limited area of the brain. Secondary symptoms can include muscle contractions, visual or smell changes, hearing abnormalities, sudden fear/anxiety or euphoria, and mental confusion. The focal seizures itself usually last between a few seconds to 2 minutes. There are 2 types of focal seizures:
  • Simple: A simple focal seizure only affects an isolated muscle group that controls the motor function of the body. This includes fingers, arms, legs, eyes etc. They do not affect the memory or awareness. The infant or child often shows symptoms of sweating, nausea, or becoming pale. However, they will not lose consciousness.
  • Complex: A complex focal seizure affects the area of the brain that controls emotion and memory. During this seizure, the infant or child will stop being aware of their surroundings. Some symptoms include passing out, sudden gagging, lip smacking, running, screaming, crying, or laughing. After the seizure, the child could experience a postictal period and will often be tired or sleepy.
• Generalized seizure: A generalized seizure occurs when there is sudden, abnormal electrical activity in both sides of the brain. Unlike focal seizures, the infant or child will experience a loss of consciousness and a postictal state after the seizure occurs. There are different types of generalized seizures:
  • Absence (petit mal) seizure: This seizure causes a change in state of consciousness and staring, usually lasting for only 30 seconds but occurring frequently. This type of seizure is very rare for infants and usually only occurs in children 4-5 years old.
  • Atonic seizures: With an atonic seizure, the infant or child will experience a sudden loss of muscle tone and may fall from a standing position or drop his or her head. During this time, the infant or child will become limp and unresponsive.
  • Generalized (grand mal) seizures: During this seizure the infant or child may experience five distinct phases: body, arms, and legs will (1) contract or flex, (2) extend or straighten out, and (3) tremor and shake, (4) followed by the clonic period where the muscles will contract and relax, and finally (5) the postictal period where the person may be sleepy, have problems with vision or speech, and may experience a headache, fatigue, or body aches. Note that not everyone experiences all these phases. This type of seizure is also called a tonic-colonic seizure and it is the most common seizure in children with cerebral palsy.
  • Infantile Spasms: This is a rare type of seizure that occurs in infants under six months. Infantile spasms generally occur when the infant is awakening or going to sleep. The infant will show brief movements of the neck, trunk, or legs that last for a few seconds. These can occur throughout the day and result in serious long-term complications that can affect growth and development.
  • Febrile Seizures: These are different than other seizures because they are triggered by high fevers and infections. They are not necessarily related to neurologic issues. However, infants with brain damage are not susceptible to febrile seizures when they get fevers.

Causes of Infant Seizures

Seizures in infants and children can be caused by many things. A common reason is birth defects, infection, or trauma during birth, which can cause brain damage.

• Brain Injury During Birth: Infant seizures often indicate underlying neurologic issues. Frequently, when the infant is deprived of oxygen during labor and delivery or experiences reduced blood flow, they can experience permanent or long-term health issues. These injuries can occur from the use of birth instruments such as forceps or vacuum extractors during natural birth, or from prolonging a difficult birth. When there is a brain injury or trauma to an infant, seizures are often one of the first and strongest indicators. Nearly 80% of neonatal seizures are attributable to oxygen deprivation.
• Infection: Neonatal infections that can cause seizures include group B strep, herpes encephalitis, meningitis, cytomegalovirus, and toxoplasmosis. These infections can occur after or during delivery. Often times, the mother can transmit untreated infection to the baby through the birth canal. If the infection is diagnosed early it can be easily treated and prevent it from being passed to the baby.

Infant Seizures & Cerebral Palsy

Cerebral palsy is permanent movement disability that is usually the result of a birth injury involving oxygen deprivation. Infant seizures are strongly associated with cerebral palsy because when a newborn experiences seizures there is a very high likelihood that they have cerebral palsy. Seizures are one of the leading clinical symptoms of most types of cerebral palsy and are often the starting point for diagnostic efforts.

Certain types of infant seizures, such as grand mal (tonic-clonic) or petit mal seizures, are very strong early indicators of spastic cerebral palsy in infants. Seizures are also one of the leading co-occurring conditions suffered by children with cerebral palsy. Depending on the severity of the disorder, cerebral palsy can lead to a number of other medical conditions.

Early Signs of Cerebral Palsy in Newborns and Babies

• Delayed motor milestones

• Persistent stiffness or floppy muscle tone

• Difficulty feeding

• Favoring one side of the body

• Scissoring legs

• Poor head control

• Persistent fisting of hands

• Abnormal reflexes

Seizure Medications

Anti-seizure medications are effective for 70% to 80% of patients. Seizure medicines dampen nerve impulses in your brain and throughout the body. Anti-seizure drugs are often used in patients who don’t have seizures to improve other nerve functions or nerve symptoms.

• New medication could be in the horizon for neonatal seizures

When Infant Seizures Are a Sign of Medical Negligence

Our lawyers see this pattern over and over again. A baby has seizures shortly after birth, and the parents are told it is one of those things that just happens.  This is sometimes true. But in spite of these efforts to downplay seizures, it is usually a big deal. Seizures in infants are very often the first outward sign of serious neurologic injury that occurred during labor, delivery, or the immediate newborn period. In many of the medical malpractice cases we review, the medical records show clear warning signs long before the first seizure.

Too often, parents are reassured that what they are seeing is normal newborn movements. Later, they learn those movements were infant seizure symptoms. The signs of seizures in babies are not always dramatic. A newborn may not have violent convulsions. Instead, there may be repeated lip smacking, eye deviation to one side, stiffening of an arm or leg, rhythmic jerking, bicycling movements of the legs, sudden pauses in breathing, or episodes of staring without response. These baby seizure symptoms are red flags. They demand an immediate evaluation so the problem is not unnecessarily worsened. When seizures in infants are missed or dismissed, the underlying brain injury can continue to evolve, and the damage can worsen.

In a properly run hospital where the care is what it should be, seizures in newborns trigger urgent testing. Continuous EEG monitoring, brain imaging, and a careful review of what happened during labor and delivery are standard steps. What our attorneys see in malpractice litigation is different. We see abnormal fetal heart tracings that were ignored. We see prolonged labor without timely intervention. We see delayed emergency C-sections. We see babies discharged without appropriate neurologic workups despite clear infant seizure symptoms. When providers fail to connect the dots, the window to limit brain injury can close quickly.

Families often ask what can cause seizures in infants during birth. In the cases we handle, the causes of seizures in infants frequently trace back to preventable obstetric failures.

• Oxygen deprivation from untreated fetal distress
• Placental complications that were not properly managed
• Failure to respond to sustained heart rate decelerations
• Improper use of forceps or vacuum extractors causing head trauma

These are not unavoidable mysteries. They are breakdowns in monitoring, decision making, and timely intervention

Newborn seizures are also closely tied to cerebral palsy. In many children we represent, seizures were among the earliest signs of cerebral palsy in newborns.

Not every infant seizure is a sign that there was malpractice somewhere.  In fact, most are not.  But when seizures in babies occur after documented fetal distress, prolonged labor, untreated infection, or delayed delivery, it is not enough to call it bad luck. In birth injury cases, seizures are frequently the first clear evidence that something went wrong in the delivery room. The medical records usually tell the story.

Contact Our Birth Injury Attorneys Today

Birth injury cases involving infant seizures and brain damage are medically and legally complex. These claims require a lawyer who understands fetal monitoring, oxygen deprivation, neonatal neurology, and how early signs of cerebral palsy in newborns show up in the medical records. This is not the kind of case you hand to a general personal injury firm. If you are considering a lawsuit, you need a lawyer who has handled serious birth injury litigation and knows how to prove what went wrong in the delivery room. If you would like us to review your potential claim, we will evaluate your case at no cost and give you a direct, honest assessment of your options.

Call our Maryland birth injury malpractice lawyers today at 800-553-8082 today or get a free online consultation.