Positively Parenting

By Audrey Halpern, MD

“Mommy, I have a headache.”

Whether it is related to an injury or an illness, parents are often confused about when to seek medical help. What’s more, they may not know that there are several food and beverage migraine triggers lurking in their refrigerators and pantries.  Distinguishing between headache and migraine is often difficult for the sufferer, particularly when it’s a child.  Parents also may be challenged by a younger child’s obscure symptoms and behavior.  Vertigo, dizziness, nausea, when accompanying a headache, may often indicate a migraine rather than simply a headache.

If your child’s headaches worry you in any way, you should seek medical care. It is also important to seek care when headaches occur after a head injury, even a seemingly mild head injury, or when headaches are associated with lethargy, fevers, stiff neck, vomiting, dizziness, falling down or clumsiness.  For parents, particularly those who have a history of migraine themselves, migraine may be a bit easier to identify in their children.  Lasting anywhere from a few hours to a few days and often debilitating, migraines are frequently triggered by commonly consumed foods and beverages, such as:

• Processed and sugar-laden foods
• Nutrasweet
• Aged cheeses (try having your child eat ricotta or cottage cheese)
• Pizza
• Potato chip products
• Caffeine (many children drink too much soda or other beverages with a lot of caffeine which may be causing their painful migraines.  Substitute these sodas with natural juices)
• Foods with nitrates or MSG such as packaged deli meats and hot dogs
• Peanuts, peanut butter and other nuts and seeds
• Foods with a lot of yeast such as donuts and cakes
  • Chocolate
  • Some fruits such as citrus fruits and overripe bananas and dried fruits such as figs and raisins
  • Skipping meals, particularly breakfast can also cause migraines

Although every child reacts differently to different foods, being aware of the foods that commonly cause migraines can help to determine the source of your child’s migraines.  For example, if your child eats a hot dog and two hours later begins complaining of a migraine, try cutting hot dogs out of their diet or switch to a brand that does not contain nitrates, a migraine chemical trigger.  In addition, make sure that your child eats a well balanced breakfast every morning and eats snacks between meals to prevent migraines later in the day. Simple substitutes such as water or juice for soda and avoiding caffeine and artificial additives can also help to avoid unnecessary pain from migraines.  Adequate sleep, reducing eye strain with sun protective eyewear and minimizing stress all aid in the reduction of children’s migraine frequency.

Alternative migraine treatment remedies include relaxation, bio feedback, and drinking relaxing herbal teas.  The best way to do this is by making an iced tea beverage for the family using a decaffeinated herbal tea such as peppermint.  The essential oils in peppermint and other herbs help muscles relax and relaxation is a large factor in our experience of pain.  Stress reduction also plays a large role in migraine care.  By simply helping our children to relax, reminding them that it is okay not to do everything and be the best at everything, we can reduce the frequency of migraines.  These approaches may be useful in treating headaches as well.

Sometimes, a simple remedy such as encouraging your child to take a nap will often allow a migraine to pass.  Applying cold compresses to the forehead, temples and eyes can help allay pain as well.  Restricting television viewing and exposure to bright lights, both of which cause eye strain, are important measures for parents to take.  Furthermore, it is best to rest in a dark, quiet room which allows sufficient relaxation.

There are a multitude of things parents can do to safeguard their children’s health.  With migraine, parents need to work harder to remove common triggers from children’s diets and seek proper medical attention at the onset of migraine and repeated headache episodes.  Keeping a calendar of migraine occurrence, foods eaten, stressors and other environmental issues gives parents an invaluable tool in monitoring the triggers, duration, frequency and history of their child’s migraine episodes so they can share valuable information with their child’s neurologist.

Audrey Halpern, MD, Board-Certified in Headache Medicine by the United Council for Neurologic Subspecialties, Board-Certified in Neurology by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and Clinical Assistant Professor of Neurology at New York University School of Medicine, is Executive Director of The Manhattan Center for Headache & Neurology.  Dr. Halpern diagnoses and treats a variety of neurological disorders, including headache, back pain, neck pain, pinched nerves, neuropathy, seizures, stroke, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, sports-related head injury/concussion and others conditions.  In addition to treating adults, Dr. Halpern specializes in treating headache disorders in adolescents and pre-teens.