How Do I Explain Seizures to a 8 Year Old?

I kind of do...
When I was a teenager I lived with my cousin and she had 2 small girls...my cousin was (sadly she passed away way a few years back) a diabetic and throughout her life she would have the occasional seizure when her blood sugar was too low. We had to have that conversation with her girls, as a family, when they were a bit younger than that. I remember my cousin was very honest and did her best to explain it. I think the most important thing is to reiterate the fact that the person having the seizure will be OK and to inform them of anything they should know if it happens while they are alone, as well as to be sympathetic about how darn right scary it is for the lil' kids to see and process.

Hope this helps!

My daughter's friend was also diagnosed with epilepsy. So, we explained to her about it. We just were honest and told her that her friend cannot control it, and it's not her fault. It's just bad luck that she has it and has to deal with it the best she can. We explained that you cannot "catch" it from someone else, but you can be understanding and you can be there for them and told her that there are probably kids at school who also have it, but that she just doesn't know. Also, ask if he has any questions. If you can't answer them, go on-line together to try to find out the answers, but that there are some things that doctors don't know either. Make sure that you tell him that you have epilepsy too and what your experiences are and how it made you feel when you found out, and how you deal with it now. He's very luck to have someone like you to talk to him!

I think the best thing you can do is be honest. Explain exactly what the illness is and don't try to sugar coat it. Kids appreciate and learn better when we're completely honest. You'd hate for him to hear the wrong thing about it from someone else and then really get freaked out because he didn't understand.

I worked in an elementary school as a health assistant. There were students who had seizures in class and the playground and the other students, who didn't understand were scared when they saw what happened because they didn't understand and didn't know what to do. Plus, kids can get really mean about it too. Some students would wet their pants and/or drool while having the seizures. Teach him what to do if he should be around when when someone has a seizure. It will help him if he understands completely.

My dad was diagnosed with Leukemia when I was 6 months old. However, he didn't start going through the more serious treatments and start becoming noticably sick until we were about 6 and 7 years old.

My parents just sat us down, explain that daddy was sick and that there is a disease in his bone marrow. He would be on medication and be in the hospital a lot, and we wouldn't know exactly if we would get better or when he was going to be sick, but we would all still love daddy and help him out when we could. They showed us pictures of the disease in books and explained to us about treaments and for our age, we were understanding.

Children are very bright, the more knowledge they have, the more they can understand, and they can usually tell when they are not being told the whole truth, which can create more fear.

At his age, he is in biology classes where they are learning about health and cells and all of that, so if you even break it down on that level, that would be fine too.

Maybe hearing it from his father would help too.

I would contact the an Epilepsy Foundation (is there the 'National Epilepsy Foundation or Association?) and ask them, too. they deal w/ this all the time. good luck!