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Background: Parent’sattitudes toward children with epilepsy are influenced by the degree of their knowledge.Misinformation and misconceptions should be identified and corrected foroptimal care and management. Our objectives were to study the parent’s knowledgeand attitudes and identify contributing factors to negative attitudes.  Methods: Consecutiveparents were included prospectively from 15 February until 15 August 2012 throughthe pediatric neurology out-patient clinic of King Abdulaziz Universityhospital, Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. A structured 40-item questionnaire wasdesigned to examine their demographics, knowledge and attitudes toward childrenwith epilepsy.Results: Atotal of 117 parents were interviewed, 57% were mothers. The ages of theirepileptic child ranged from 1-16 years (median 6.6), mostly (65%) boys.Although most parents (70%) felt informed about epilepsy and recognized varioustreatment modalities, many believed that epilepsy is a mental disorder (48%),correlates with evil (44%), and affects the child’s intelligence (38%). Up to53% admitted that they treat their epileptic child differently and avoidupsetting or punishing him/her. This behavior was less likely if they achieved collegeor university education (p=0.01). Some parents (29%) admitted to using non-medicaltreatments, usually traditional herbs and religious practices. Those parentswere more likely to believe that epilepsy is a mental disease (p=0.002) orcorrelates with evil (p=0.015). Conclusions: The level of knowledge andunderstanding about epilepsy among parentsof epileptic children needs improvement. Many parents have significantmisconceptions, negative attitudes, and poor parenting practices. Increasedawareness and educational programs are needed to help improve the quality of lifeof these patients and their families.

parent; knowledge; attitudes; child; pediatric; epilepsy