About half of all children wih CP have seizures. This means that they have times when there is some abnormal activity in their brains that interrupts what they are doing. Your brain is constantly sending messages out to your body - to breathe, to move, to keep your heart pumping. A seizure is a series of abnormal messages being sent out very close together. These abnormal messages may cause someone to stare and stop moving during a seizure, or may cause them to loose control of their body and fall down.
Some people show shaking movements all over when they are having a seizure.
Seizures usually last a few seconds to a few minutes, and in most case are not dangerous. Many children take special medicine to help prevent seizures or reduce the number of seizures they have. Kathleen C. Borowitz, Children's Medical Center, University of Virginia. All rights reserved.