If your child has ever had a febrile seizure you understand the intensity of the situation and how you would not it upon any parent.

One of my twin daughters had a febrile seizure at 14 months of age and it was quite traumatic. Gratefully she came through it and is doing fantastic today. However, ever since that event, when any of our children get a fever we are on high alert.

Raising a baby is already a massive undertaking.  The last thing you want is to mess with abnormal neurological activity and especially seizures.

Every mother wants to give her baby the best nutrition and the greatest opportunity for success as possible.  As a breastfeeding mother, you can make a huge difference in your baby’s neurologic development.

One of the first steps you can take is to make sure you have optimal iron and ferritin status. By ensuring your own iron sufficiency, you can be confident that your breastmilk has adequate iron concentrations to support optimal neurological development of your child.

Iron deficiency anemia and febrile seizures are two common conditions afflicting children around the world. 

Iron is vital for the proper functioning of enzymes and neurotransmitters in the central nervous system. Low iron status is a known cause of neurological symptoms related to behavioral development, poor attention span, and learning deficits.

Recent studies have demonstrated that children with febrile seizures had significantly lower serum iron and ferritin levels compared to the control group of children. 

Many of these babies had iron deficiency without anemia. This is yet another reason why it is crucial to not just check hemoglobin and hematocrit, but also to check serum iron and ferritin levels.

Another study published in 2012 showed that children with febrile seizures were almost twice as like to be iron deficient compared to their non-febrile seizure counterparts.

The European Pediatric Neurology Society recommends routine screening for iron status in children presenting with febrile seizures.

European Pediatric Neurology Society

Many women give birth to their beautiful baby and their medical professional never recommend they have their iron or ferritin levels checked. This is an often overlooked but crucial step in the process of ensuring optimal development of the baby as well as post-partum recovery of the mother.

Not only does it require massive energy and regeneration after birth for the mother, but the breastfeeding baby is extracting loads of nutrients to build their own body.

If you’re pregnant or preparing for pregnancy, get your ferritin levels checked and ensure your levels are over 50 during and after pregnancy to eliminate side effects of iron insufficiency, reduce postpartum depression, and create margin for your baby or toddler when they get a fever.

It only takes one febrile seizure to know you never want to go through it again.

Ferritin can be just the margin your baby needs to keep him or her from enduring a febrile seizure and the potential ER visit, testing, and complications.

Hydrolyzed Whole Protein Iron increased my wife’s ferritin levels from 9 to 23 with no side effects while she was pregnant with our twin girls.

 

References:

  • Low Serum Ferritin is a Risk for Febrile Convulsion in Children. Faridpur Med. Coll. J. 2016;11(2):44-46.
  • Association Between Iron Deficiency and Febrile Seizures. Eur J Paediatr Neurol. 2015 Sep;19(5):591-6
  • Iron Deficiency Anemia–A Risk Factor for Febrile Seizures in Children. J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad. Jul-Sep 2010;22(3):71-3.
  • The Association Between Plasma Ferritin Level and Simple Febrile Seizures in Children. Journal of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology. 38(7):512–516, OCTOBER 2016
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