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Kids with Migraines...

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Migraine Headache
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Posted 5/8/2006 4:39 AM (GMT 0)
I have a few questions that pertain to both of my children...I'll describe them both first then ask all the questions together at the end :)

My son was diagnosed with migraines when he was 6 years old. He had a low grade headache for months...we tried eyeglasses....change in diet...looked for allergies....everything. Then he started having his vision flip around upside-down. He also saw (what he called happy potatoes) green spots that floated around in front of him. We had MRI's and the works to rule out a brain tumor then a pediatric nuerologist diagnised him with migraines and called the visual stuff "Alice in Wonderland" vision, said it was common in kids. We tried lots of meds, got the visual weirdness to slow down but never actually broke the low grade constant headache until he was 8 when we slowly took him off all the daily meds. Now he is 9 and this week he got real dizzy and has had a low grade headache again.

My daughter has gotten tummyaches constantly since she was tiny. When the nuerologist was working with my son, we happened to mention something about her in his presents and he asked a few more questions and said that sometimes little kids (she was 3 at the time) have migraines that don't impact their heads but rather thier tummies instead. We had been giving her tums (by doc's okay) for quite some time by then and just thought she liked them but he said they can't hurt her and to just allow her to have them if she complains because it really could be her version of migraines. He said there is a prescription we could use for this kind of migraines too. She is now 6 and is having them more and more...tums still helps but it is now daily.

Here are my questions: Has anyone had any experience with these two senarios? We were told that if you have migraines such as these BEFORE puberty, you are likely to out grow them when puberty hits...any experience with that? I don't know at what point do we turn back to meds for my son - or initiate meds with my daughter, any suggestions?

Posted 5/8/2006 12:14 PM (GMT 0)
Hi Frog,

Sorry your kids are going through this. My sister had migraines as a child which she used to see snow or rain depending on the strength of the pain if it was snowing the pain was really bad and rain was a medium pain. At one point when she was around 9 or 10 she had a bad one that took her away from school for a whole term, she had to sit in a dark room for most of that time. By the time she was 21 her migraines had disappeared altogether, and thankfully have not reappeared and she is now 50. I don't think the meds my sister was on are around now so cannot help you on that Frog.

Just keep on doing what the Doc says and take advice about the meds from him. Hope this helps, take care Ann.
Posted 5/8/2006 12:48 PM (GMT 0)
Thanks Annuk

Hearing that they haven't haunted her for her entire life is wonderful news. That is what I pray for. My husband, his mother, aunt, and Grandmother all have very dibilitating migraines so when they first used the diagnosis at age six my heart sunk...so far they haven't been a 'huge' issue but I want to make sure we are dealing with them correctly so we provent that from happening.

Any more stories from others with small children and migraine experience would be helpful :)

Posted 5/9/2006 5:31 PM (GMT 0)
I've had migraines since I was a kid, I was diagnosed before kindergarten. Mostly just pain but I'd also see shimmery objects. The edges of objects would shine and come in and out of focus. It would look pretty and you didn't want to look away, which kind of freaked my mom out, I guess, when your kid is staring off into space :)

The other thing is several times a month I'd get the "big one" a worse-than-normal migraine which would get progressively worse during the evening and end with me puking (generally in bed as a child) as I got older (grade school) I started to recognize the difference between "regular head pain" and a "bad migraine" ... that helped mom from cleaning sheets every week or so :P

Anyways stick with it. As your kid grows up things will change, as their brain develops the migraines will change. The physical symptoms didn't completely subside from me until college although they reduced a lot by 8th grade.

As far as going away... no. Mine actually are worse, painwise than when I was a child. But I don't throw up anymore. They changed radically between the ages of 20-22. I guess that's when your brain is in the final phases of development and things can change then.

I never took (perscription) medication as a child.

Good luck.
Posted 5/9/2006 5:32 PM (GMT 0)
Forgot to mention, my father and grandmother both have migraines as well.
Posted 5/10/2006 12:41 AM (GMT 0)
philski

Thanks so much for sharing and I am very sorry that you have had them so much of your life. I bet it really interfered with being a kid...that is what I am afraid for. Do you mind if I ask how old you are now - male/female - and if female, if you've had babies.... I know those hormonal things can change things and wanted to know if you've experienced that. Again, thanks so much.

Frog

Posted 5/12/2006 7:14 PM (GMT 0)
24 - male - and while I lack the capability to reproduce my wife and I do have a son, he is 1 and we don't know yet if he has the curse.
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