Petit Mal Seizures in Children

While every child stares off into space occasionally, parents may get worried if they notice frequent staring spells. Petit mal seizures, an epileptic type of seizures, occur most frequently in young children and mimic staring spells, so it imperative that parents can tell the difference.

Age

• Petit mal seizures, often referred to as absence seizures, typically occur in children 4 to 12 years old, according Lucile Packard's Children Hospital of Stanford. The Mayo Clinic ports that children generally grow out of these types of seizures by adulthood.

Symptoms

• During an absence seizure, a child may stare into space, while blinking rapidly and smacking her lips in frequent succession. When she comes out of the episode, she may not even realize what happened.

Severity

• While absence seizures appear mild since they only last a few seconds, the Epilepsy Foundation states that a child could suffer from up to 100 episodes a day before getting help because they happen so fast and then the child seems fine.

Complications

• According to the Mayo Clinic, some children experiencing absence seizures may later experience grand mal or another type of seizure disorder. Children with absence seizures struggle with restrictions in recreational activities, such as never swimming by themselves, for fear that they may blank out and drown.

Treatment

• Epilepsy.com states that most child neurologists begin treatment of absence seizures with the drug Zarontin. This drug works by stabilizing electrical activity in a children's brain to eliminate absence seizures. Zarontin has lowered the amount of seizures in children by more than 50 percent, according to Epilepsy.com.