As strokes are growing more common among infants and children, the American Heart Association on Thursday released its first-ever guidelines on how to recognize and treat stroke in infants and children.

The Management of Stroke in Children, as the paper was named, reports that about 10 out of every 100,000 children have a stroke annually, the risk being greatest during the first two months of life.

“Stroke in children is uncommon but not as rare as we used to think,” E Steve Roach, MD, chair of the statement-writing group and professor of pediatric neurology at the Ohio State University College of Medicine, said, according to WebMD.

The guide also points that risk factors and treatment are different in children compared to adults. If high blood pressure, cigarette smoking and artery disease are main risk factors in adults’ stroke, the most common risk factors in children include sickle cell anemia and congenital or acquired heart disease.

There are also other risks, which can lead to stroke in infants and kid such as neck and head infections, autoimmune disorders, head traumas, dehydration, or inflammatory bowel disease. Dr. Roach said “it’s critical to promptly recognize and diagnose a stroke, because treating the cause reduce the likelihood of additional strokes.”

He also warned that in newborns the first symptoms is often seizure of an arm or leg, which is less common in adult stroke.

Children should not be given the same drugs as adults are was another recommendation of the AHA when it comes to treating strokes in children. The major reason was that these drugs were tested only on adults, thus their side effects on children are not known. They could seriously endanger children’s health.

Modern imaging technologies such as magnetic resonance imaging, magnetic resonance angiography, and computed tomography have improved infant stroke diagnosis lately, the guide read.

The guidelines were published in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association.