Seizure-like episodes are common in infancy and it may be difficult to distinguish between epileptic seizures and non-epileptic events. The incidence of these non-epileptic events is poorly documented. A population-based prospective cohort study has been reported from Rotterdam, The Netherlands (Annemarie M Visser and colleagues Dev Med Child Neurol 2010;52:1014–20; see also Commentary, ibid: 980–1).

Mothers were recruited in early pregnancy and 6559 infants entered the study at birth. The analysis included 2860 infants whose parents …