MedifocusHealth

Migraine headaches are relatively common in children and adolescents. Twenty percent of migraineurs experienced their first migraine headache before the age of five. Approximately 5% of preschool children, 4-11% of elementary school children, and up to 23% of teenagers and adolescents may experience migraine headaches.

Migraines usually begin earlier in boys (mean age 7.2 years old) than girls (mean age 10.9 years old). Until puberty, boys are equally or slightly more affected than girls. During adolescence and young adulthood, girls are more affected (20-30%) than boys (10-20%) and female predominance continues as they get older.

Typically, children tend to have severe headaches around their eyes, forehead, or temples, frequently accompanied by nausea with or without vomiting, or a sick feeling in their stomach. Like adults, some experience an aura before the headache onset, and loud noises, bright lights, or strong odors may exacerbate the pain. Severe pain is almost always relieved by deep sleep. Migraine headaches strongly impact the quality of life of the child not only socially, but also academically as they may miss classes and often report that they do not think or function well during or right after an attack. Estimates are that 65-80% of children with migraine headaches experience a disruption of normal activities. In addition, many of these children suffer significant anxiety or stress due to their migraines and associated problems. For some children, migraine headaches may become less frequent and intense as they get older.

Some children have many of the signs and symptoms that accompany migraine headaches, such as sensitivity to light and sound, nausea, vomiting, but no head pain. This group of symptoms is called an abdominal migraine.

The most common triggers for children include:

• Chocolate
• Cheese
• Nuts
• Shellfish
• Chinese food
• Sugar
• Caffeine
• Alcohol