Once a child has epilepsy, parents often wonder: what causes it? No adult in our family has epilepsy, so how can a child have epilepsy? In fact, not all causes of epilepsy are related to heredity. There are many causes of epilepsy, which are broadly categorized into three types: idiopathic, symptomatic and cryptogenic. Idiopathic epilepsy is a condition in which no structural or metabolic abnormality in the brain can be detected according to current diagnostic techniques other than those that may be genetically related. In this case the child’s psychomotor development is essentially normal and there may be epilepsy in the family. Symptomatic epilepsy A suspected or known CNS lesion with a wide variety of clinical conditions such as infection, hypoxia, developmental malformations, tumors, etc. Children with this type of epilepsy may have intellectual and motor developmental backwardness. Cryptogenic epilepsy Presumed to be symptomatic epilepsy, but the cause has not been found using current knowledge, and with advances in medical technology, the cause may gradually be discovered. This type of epilepsy accounts for the majority of cases.