[Symptoms of epilepsy in the child].

Convulsions and epilepsy in the child include widely diverse disorders, ranging from simple and benign to complex and severe. Initially, the general practitioner must consider the various diagnoses in order to prescribe appropriate investigations and treatment (now complex and numerous), or to orient the diagnosis. In the case of paroxysm, the initial step is to affirm the diagnosis of epileptic seizure, especially on the basis of the descriptions made by the child and by witnesses, possibly with the aid of an EEG. The second step is to determine the etiology, differentiating isolated seizures occurring in a particular context (for example febrile convulsions) from epileptic seizures with no special context. The description of the seizure and the inter-critical EEG lead to classifying the seizure as partial or generalised and, if it is repeated, to consider it as composing one of the childhood epileptic syndromes.