Convulsions in the first three years of life.

A prospective study of convulsions in 5803 consecutive newborn infants from an Australian city is described; 535 children were lost to study, leaving 90.9% of the original sample. Of the remaining 5268, 325 had at least one convulsive episode during the first three years of life--an incidence of 61.7 per thousand. Convulsions following breath-holding attacks were experienced by 8.1 per thousand, while a further 4.0 per thousand had simple breath-holding attacks associated with transient loss of consciousness, but no convulsion. Convulsions associated with fever were experienced by 39.9 per thousand. In addition, 8.2 per thousand had idiopathic convulsions, 2.8 per thousand had neonatal convulsions and 2.7 per thousand had convulsions of mixed aetiology. Factors relating to the convulsion are described in detail. Pregnancy and birth data are compared with those of a control group taken from the study.