Migraines in children?

Libby Pritchett

Libby Pritchett

New member
Have any of you had any experience with migraines with your children?

Kendra (age 10) has been having headaches off and on for a couple of years now. At first, they weren't very often, but they've become more frequent recently. We've had her eyes checked, and they didn't see anything causing a problem there. Usually, we can give her some Motrin, and she'll go to her bed and sleep it off. And she almost always feels fine after she's slept for a couple of hours. But while it hurts, she just wants to lay in bed with her pillow over her head.

So I called the pediatrician's office and spoke with the nurse. She said it sounds like migraines to her, but she was going to talk to the doctor and call me back. She mentioned sending her to a neurologist to put her on some preventative migraine meds.

Now I'm all freaked out that I didn't take her in sooner. I feel like a horrible mother. She's perfectly healthy the rest of the time, but when these headache strikes, it really knocks her down.

So I guess I'm just wondering if any of you have had any experience with anything like this. Has your child been on any kind of preventative meds? What do I need to be concerned about there?

Thanks for listening. I'm just freaking out a little this morning.
 
One of my BF's in real life has a son with migranes. He takes a preventative medicine daily.
I will have to ask her what it is because for the life of me I can't recall.

Corey was about Kendra's age when the started!

Don't feel bad Libby!
You are a wonderful mother.
 
My daughter gets them (she's 12 and has had them for about 4 years I think). She actually had an MRI done when she was in 4th grade. Turned out normal. Her migraines are apparently just like mine...triggered by allergies. We give her Claritin to help with all the offending things at school, and it's helped a lot! When it doesn't, and her headache escalates, I give her 1/2 a tablet of Execedrin Migraine, 1 Sudafed pill (the orginal kind...the new, fake sudafed doesn't work), 1 Benadryl. It usually works on the first dose.
 
My brother had migraines when he was younger.

this might freak you out, but when he went to the neurologist they ended up doing an MRI and found that part of his brain actually rests on his spinal cord. So he couldn't do any contact sports (so no more soccer, which really upset him), he couldn't even play dodgeball in gym. He STILL sees that neurologist, she loves him.

When he was younger, he had a variety of meds that he took in rotation. He had a "headache diary", and everytime he got one he wrote in a new entry how bad the headache was, what medecine he took, and how long after the medicine the headache lasted. Then they used that information to narrow down which meds worked the best, and then he took just those.

He's since grown out of it and hardly ever gets them anymore. So there's hope. It could be a hormonal thing (which I'm pretty sure is why I get them), or something similar to my brothers where he'll literally grow out of it.

You're not a horrible mother either!! I think all kids over exagerate pain, so it's hard to tell sometimes what a serious headache woul dbe vs just feeling down or whatever. You're taking the steps now to see what's going on and work at finding a solution, and that's all you can do!
 
I get migraines, mine started around age 11-12.

Migraines are such a different ballgame than regular headaches. At the time when I used to get them, I just used to go to bed, migraines were not something my mom was familiar with, and it never occured to her that might be what they were. Only as an adult did I realize what I was getting, and what I could do to help.

I hope that she does grow out of it, but in the meantime, taking her in to see what is causing them is a good idea.

I also used to keep a migraine journal, each time I got one, I wrote these things:
1) aura or no
2) if an aura, how long after the aura did the headache occur
3) duration of headache
4) nausea if any
5) the weather/barometer reading (air pressure)/temperature (this is what triggers mine most of the time now)
6) what I'd eaten that day
7) if I had my hair up or down, if up, what style

Unfortunately, I never outgrew it, or even now, know what triggers mine. I find they are mostly triggered by sudden air pressure changes, and sinus issues.

I hope you can figure out what it is, because they suck, and it'd be great for you to get them under control for her now, because with the onset of hormones she'll be getting in the next couple of years, it can also trigger them too.

((hugs)) Libs, you have nothing to feel badly about. I mean, who really thinks about migraines in kids, kwim?
 
My son had them when he was younger. I mentioned it to his doctor but because they were not happening all that often and they went away with a dose of motrin he was not all that worried about it. He told me that alot of kids have htem and they usually dissappear by the time they are like 6 or 7 which my sons did. I read about them though and it seems like its hit or miss...even if you took her when they first started there is still no guarantees that they woul.d have figured them out or found any better way to treat her then you have with OTC meds....hope that everything is ok with her though and it turns out to be nothing serious.
 
oh and my daughter was dianosed with something similar to what BrodoNY0123's brother was. what her dianosis was called is Chiara Malformation. She gets headaches too. Hers were never all that bad though.
 
jessica31876 said:
oh and my daughter was dianosed with something similar to what BrodoNY0123's brother was. what her dianosis was called is Chiara Malformation. She gets headaches too. Hers were never all that bad though.
Click to expand...

you are kidding! My boss's son (age 3) just had surgery in NY for the Chiara Malformation! I had never heard of that before. Wow!

Thank you all for the support. You've made me feel much better. I just hate to think of her suffering and to think that maybe I should've done something before now to prevent it. I appreciate all the information, and we're definitely going to start keeping a log so that maybe we can see a pattern developing with what triggers them.

I went ahead and called about getting her eyes checked again because it's been a while. So, I'd like to rule that out anyway.

These have just been hitting about once a week or every 2 weeks now, and she's really getting miserable. So, I'm ready for some answers.
 
Libby, my son started having migraines when he was six. It was in relation to his lazy eye and the fact that he was over-using his good eye to compensate for the bad sight in the lazy eye.

He still gets them and he's 15 and his lazy eye has been fixed. But, I give him one Exedrin migraine pill and that helps.

I get them too and I can tell you that Exedrin Migraine is the ONLY way to go! That stuff works well for me and my DS.
 
I feel your pain Libby. Well, her pain, lol. I hate dr's, so I waited way too long to get myself checked out by a neurologist. My MRI came back normal too. My moms are hormonal, so I'm thinking mine are too. One of these days I suppose I should go to an optometrist......

Anyway. Keeping a log can be REALLY helpful. She might have food triggers too. (Unfortunately, I don't, so I couldn't just stop eating anything, lol.)

I'm on amitryptaline as a preventative. I take it every night before bed. I used to get migraines 4 or 5 times a week (or just one that lasted 3 or 4 days), and now I get maybe 1 every 2 months.

Anyway, I'm rambling. I hope they find out what's going on with her and it's something simple and easy to fix :)
 
Mine started at 10/almost 11 but I don't remember my mom taking me to the doctor or anything. She just knew what they were. All the females in my family are cursed with migraines and other female issues so it's something that was almost expected. By the time I was about 18 they got bad enough to start trying prescription meds.
There was a little boy in Kassi's class last year (1st grade) who had them but I think it was very rarely.


The preventative meds never did agree with me and honestly some of them scared me. I am one to get crazy side effects so now I just have a prescription for midrin and take that when I get them. I hope you have better luck than I do with this!

Sorry I don't have any good advice Libby. I guess just do all you can to keep her comfortable for now. They certainly are no fun.
 
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I got them frequently from ages 11-16. They were definately hormonal. I get them again now (I'm 43), but only every few months.

I hope the doctor can figure out what's causing the migranes. Hopefully it's something as simple as allergies or eyesight.
 
all to familiar

oh libby lou..this is so sad...my little brother spencer had these nasty things..they started when he was about 6...probably earlier actually...but they finally figured it out by 8..he would throw up violently, have to be in the dark..it had to be totally quiet..he would sleep forever after he took his medicine..not sure what he took back then..but i do know that he had to be on blood pressure medicine...something about the blood getting to wear it needed to go and when it didn't the pressure seemed to cause these horrible things...I think that now he {26 years old} uses a nose spray..sorry i am not much help...prayers to your little angel :) and you...having a sick kid stinks and not knowing what is wrong is even tougher...love ya!
 
My oldest daughter had what seemed to be migranes (they run in DH's family) around age 11-12. She was seen by a pediatrician, a family dr, 2 different eye drs, and even had an MRI done. We tried every OTC med & kept a food diary. The only thing they could come up with was that she was dehydrated. Drinking tons of water didn't help either, and they wouldn't prescribe migrane meds at her age, even though she had to lay down in a dark room and was nauseaus from them. She put up with the headaches for a few years, and then I read an article about scented candles and air fresheners causing headaches. I had had some of the glade plugins, and we used an electric candle warmer with yankee candle tarts. I removed all of them from our home, and within a couple days she was headache free and has been for the last couple years :) Might not work for you, but just in case, thought I'd mention it!
 
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