Migraines in Children - Often Associated With Stomach Migraine

migraines in children
Most people associate migraine with adults. However, headaches and migraines in children are amongst the most common childhood ailments.

Yet migraine in a young child often goes undiagnosed. This is partly because young children have difficulty expressing themselves and describing exactly what the problem is.

Also many parents and doctors do not recognize the symptoms experienced by a child as migraine.


Migraine has strong family links.
Three quarters of children that suffer from migraine have at least one family member who also suffers with migraine.

So if you already have a migraine sufferer in the family, it is worth considering the possibility of migraine in your child.

Often children experience the sudden and severe onset of a headache, located around the eyes, in the forehead or temples.



They may feel sick and vomit and experience the aura that often goes with a migraine. This is a visual disturbance that can be very distressing.

The child may see flashing lights or even have a blind spot in the middle of the eye. They may have very pale skin and have the inability to eat.

Many children feel the need to avoid bright lights, strong odors, or loud noises at this time as it can make the migraine feel worse.. These symptoms are very classic to both adult and childhood migraine.

However, migraine in children often does not present itself in the same way as that of an adult. While migraine in an adult may last only a few hours, a childhood migraine can last from one hour to up to 72 hours.

Unlike adult migraine, childhood migraine often doesn't have an accompanying headache or have any early warning signs that an attack is imminent.

Children Often Get Stomach Migraine
Instead the child will experience severe and often crippling stomach pains around the navel or centre of the stomach.

This is because the muscles of the stomach vigorously contract in an effort to ease the pain. This is why migraines in children are referred to as abdominal or stomach migraines.

For this reason migraines in children are often dismissed as tummy ache or an excuse for not wanting to go to school.

Because of the absence of a headache that is associated with migraine, the condition is often put down to just feeling a bit poorly or stomach upset, particularly if the child vomits.

The reasons for abdominal migraines are unclear
.
However it is thought that they may be caused by changes in two chemicals in the body, histamine and serotonin. The chemical changes could contribute to both abdominal migraine and migraine headaches.

Stress and anxiety can be a contributing factor in these chemical changes. Therefore, it is possible that psychological influences may trigger an abdominal migraine as with classic migraine headache.

Unfortunately when a child is  suffering a migraine, the symptoms and pain may be so distressing that it causes adrenaline levels to rise and make the pain of the migraine worse.



Enhanced by Zemanta

No comments:

Post a Comment