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About 1% of children ages 0-17 years old have a diagnosis of epilepsy and an overall 1 in 26 people will develop epilepsy over their life span.
Epilepsy is a disorder involving two or more repeated unprovoked seizures. These can be episodes of disturbed brain function associated with changes in attention and/or behavior, or the commonly envisioned jerking and shaking of extremities with drooling. It is possible for some children to outgrow the disorder, others can have it easily managed through medication and some may be more severely impacted throughout their lives. Many children will outgrow the epilepsy but this is depending on the seizure type while others will be easily controlled with seizure medications.
Takijah Heard, MD, Pediatric Epileptologist at NorthShore, tells parents, caregivers and teachers what they should know in the event of a seizure as well as some steps they can take to prevent harm from seizures before they happen:
Parents, what are other precautions that you recommend for growing up with epilepsy?