Giving adequate information about febrile convulsion and its prognosis would be helpful in alleviating parental stress, and would contribute to decrease in the morbidity of febrile convulsion. In this study, the knowledge level of parents on taking body temperature, and decreasing high fever, their attitudes during febrile convulsion and the impact of febrile convulsion on parents are evaluated. One hundred seventy-four parents of 132 children with FC were enrolled in the study. Twenty-seven per cent of parents had no thermometer at home, 32.8% of them did not know how to take a temperature, 72.2% of them did not know the minimum range of increased body temperature, and 69.5% of them did not know how to decrease the increased body temperature. Thirty-six percent of parents recognised the convulsions when their children suffered from them, the others assumed the convulsion were fainting spells (6.9%), near death state (38.5%) and suffocation (18.4%). Thirty-six per cent of parents brought their children to the hospital without doing anything themselves. Most parents (91.4%) had a fear of a recurrence of febrile convulsion in their children. Seventy-four per cent of parents complained of insomnia, 24.3% parents had dyspeptic symptoms even 14 parents had weight loss due to dyspepsia.

Because one-fifth of the children under 5 years have VAD in Izmir, Turkey, nutrition education must be given to the families during well-child care visits, and routine vitamin supplementation should be considered especially in children with malnutrition.