Children’s Mercy Headache Relief Clinic

According to a 2019 research study that aimed to study headaches in children and adolescents, an average of 56% children and adolescents have headaches, and about 8% have migraines. While the migraine ratio is not that high, the prevalence of headaches in children is very common.

Is this Bad?

This, however, does not mean they are dangerous or something that disrupts their lives. Sometimes, children experience these headaches getting more frequent or intense. This may indicate an underlying disease in kids. The Children’s Mercy Headache Relief Clinic helps children by treating all types of headaches they experience, including tension headaches and intense migraines. It offers consultation to help family health practitioners and pediatricians diagnose and treat their headaches. The clinic provides compassionate, comprehensive care to kids of all age groups.

To help you understand how children have headaches, we will first have to explain the types of headaches children have:

1. A Primary Headache: This gets diagnosed when the headache is the main issue your kid has. Once it gets treated, the problem gets resolved. This includes the tension and mild migraine headaches your little ones have.
2. A Secondary Headache: To diagnose a secondary headache, you need to figure out the underlying condition that is causing it. To relieve a secondary headache, you need to treat both the underlying condition and the headache it caused. This includes serious conditions sometimes, such as meningitis, bleeding in the brain, or brain tumors. However, this is very rare. Secondary headaches are also caused by caffeine withdrawal, lack of sleep, depression, and viral illnesses.

A migraine is different from a regular headache. It may be on both sides, but more often than not it is on one side only. On occasion, it may run from one side to the other one. Most migraines are centered in the forehead, but they also occur at the back of the head or either side. How intense a migraine can get is different from time to time, as well as from person to person.

But you can’t classify every headache as a migraine. Also, children who have migraines have occasional vomiting, nausea, and loss of appetite. They are also sometimes sensitive to light and sound. About 80 to 90 percent of children who have migraines have inherited it from either or both parents. This figure includes a vast majority of parents who are not aware that their headache is a migraine.

At times, when children have a migraine, they have an aura with it. It occurs when a portion of their brain is not functioning as it should temporarily. An aura may occur during, before or after the migraine. It may also be accompanied by a change in vision, such as blurriness, and loss like seeing holes, or losing eyesight altogether. Your child may also envision zigzag lines, sparkles, or spots. A lot of kids have tingling or numbness, a spinning sense, they lose their balance, feel ringing in their ears, have double vision, and even faint during the aura phase.

There are some headache symptoms in kids that can signify serious underlying medical conditions. Contact your pediatrician right away if your children are having any of the following symptoms:

• A stiff neck or high fever along with a headache
• A headache that wakes them up at night
• A headache they have after waking up in the morning
• An intense headache they develop all of a sudden
• A headache they have after having a head injury
• Headache related to walking difficulties, double vision, balance issues, fainting, or intense confusion

If you need to provide urgent diagnosis and treatment to your child for their headache, you should take them to Children’s Mercy Headache Relief Clinic. Take the child to the emergency room in this facility, and discuss the issue with their pediatrician.

Even if the kid does not have the aforementioned symptoms, but your little one’s headaches are still worrying you, you should talk this out with a family doctor.

When you pay the Children’s Mercy Headache Relief Clinic your first visit, your child will first undergo an evaluation. This includes taking out detailed patient history, keeping a calendar or diary of headaches, writing down their intensity and frequency as well. The doctor will physically examine the child and ask for their previous medical records, that their primary care doctor may provide. Any tests that may be required to figure out the underlying condition of your child will also be discussed. Most children who have migraines don’t need MRIs and CT scans. An individualized treatment plan and follow-up routine will also be recommended.

A typical migraine treatment plan may include:

• Avoiding triggers, such as lack of sleep
• Permanent healthy changes in lifestyle
• Pain medicines to stop a migraine
• Daily medicines to prevent migraines from occurring in the first place
• Teaching the child relaxation techniques, including biofeedback, in which the child is taught how to control the response of their body to lessen pain.