The attack often begins with the child losing consciousness, and shortly afterwards the body, legs and arms go stiff.
The head is thrown backwards and the legs and arms begins to jerk.
The skin goes pale and may even turn blue briefly.
The attack ends after a few minutes and the shaking stops. The child goes limp, and then normal colour and consciousness slowly return.
Some children regain consciousness faster than others.

Children may inherit the tendency to suffer febrile convulsions from their parents.

If either parent suffered a febrile convulsions as a child, the risk of the child getting it rises 10 to 20 per cent.
If both parents and their child have at some point suffered a febrile convulsion, the risk of another child getting it rises 20 to 30 per cent.

Nevertheless, the child's susceptibility also depends on whether the child frequently gets infections. About 4 out of 10 children who have had febrile convulsions will get them again at some stage, although the risk differs greatly from child to child. The child's risk of febrile convulsion rises if:

they are genetically predisposed to it
they suffer frequent illnesses, which include high temperatures
the first attack of febrile convulsion was accompanied by a relatively low body temperature - below 39ºC.

One in a thousand children may suffer a febrile convulsions after receiving the MMR vaccine. In these cases it occurs 8 to 10 days after the vaccination and is caused by the the measles component of the vaccine. However, this causes only about one tenth of cases of febrile convulsion compared with measles itself.

Children who are prone to febrile convulsions should follow the same programme of vaccination as all other children.

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