[OneMore?]

3 weeks ago (DD was 3) I picked DD up from kindy she burst into tears and cried that her head hurt. Kindy assured me she hadn't bumped her head although she had been a little subdued during the day.

To cut a long story short - she cried all night. Panadol and nurofen didn't do much. We presented at ED at 5am as she kept saying over and over "please make my head stop hurting". We were monitored for 12 hours and went home (I was ok with this) as she seemed ok. The minute she started moving around more at home she started crying about her sore head. She vomited so back we went to ED. They admitted us for the night, gave her a bag of fluids and she woke up fine on the Sunday morning, pain free.

Our paed (we have a long history with him), ED drs etc all said possible migraine ? We did discuss CT scans etc but decided at this stage all was ok and it was not warranted.

Today is 3 weeks later - DD has been a bit whiny and out of sorts. We went to visit my dad (an hour away) she kept asking if we could go home (unusual). When we got in the car she said her head was very sore, less than 10 mins later she vomited all over the car and promptly fell asleep.

We are now home she has had a bath and has panadol and nurofen on board and asked for an ice pack for her head and is asleep with the ice pack clutched to her head.

I am now thinking yes migraine x 2. The only similarities (triggers) I can think of is end of the week ? Tired ? I will follow up with our paed of course and take further action if the night doesn't go well.

Had anyone else had kids with migraines so early ? How do you treat them - how often do they get them ? Weirdly I have never had a migraine until I was pregnant with DD when I became bed ridden with migraines they were so bad.

[CFMummy]

Poor girl I have had migrains since I was a child dark room and no noise helped but not much. As an adult they have finaly linked them to my having epilepsy. I hope you find what causes them and find a way to stop them as they realy are painful

[Blueflower]

my now 13 year old has suffered from them sjnce he was about 5yrs old. unfortunately for him we cant seem to find the trigger as he often wakes up with one. ill go in there try and wake him up only to have him groan at me and cry out to turn off the light as his head hurts. sometimes we are lucky and we get panadine forte into him (panadol etc dont touch it) early enough so that he goes back to sleep for about 4hrsand he is good. other times we dont and he sleeps in complete darkness vomits a few hours later and goes back to sleep for nearly the whole day.

so mamy drs have told me its just bad headaches as young children dont suffrr migrains. bullsh*t i say to that!! we are now seeing a ped in the new to give him a good going over and see what he can to. he had to many days off school this past year due to them

[*mmmmmm*]

This is an interesting post because we took my 5-year-old daughter to the ED just a couple of days ago when out of nowhere she started screaming about head pain, sweating profusely and vomiting. We thought she had a ruptured aneurysm. I mentioned getting migraines myself and asked if it were possible but they said that it's unusual in children that young. She was given medication and slept it off in the ED and seemed fine later.

As for the link to epilepsy, I had petit mal seizures when I was a child and started getting migraines from my early teens, My eldest daughter has juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (though no migraines) and 5-year-old daughter had a seizure a couple of months ago. The doctors said she was a bit old for febrile seizures and we've been referred for an EEG because of family history. My neurologist wants me to get an EEG too to rule out temporal lobe seizures.

[flushthetoilet]

I think I would take her back and insist on a scan.

[OneMore?]

Hmm, all very interesting replies.

We had DDs eyes tested a week ago and she does have astigmatism that can be linked to headaches (not usually migraines the optometrist said), it was a place that specialises in kids. DD has been going there for eye checks for the past 2 years.

Horrible for ones so young to get migraines.

[bjk76]

I got 'headaches' at around that age (not sure if they were headaches or worse) and mum took me to a chiropractor who adjusted my neck and that stopped the headaches. Could be worth having a chiro or physio check her out.

[mumbo]

I have long suffered migraines, and now my DD11 has inherited them. DD's are usually triggered by illness or stress. Her first was around the 5/6 year age. She doesn't have them very often though, so... maybe 1 or 2 a year.

Best of luck with your investigations.

[monkeys mum]

My DD has been suffering from migraines for a few years now, shes actually on a preventor for them. They run in our family sadly. Her triggers are dehydration, not enough sleep, and light. My triggers are basically the same plus hormones.

When dd starts complaining we give her a panadol and take her to bed in her room or ours wuth no lights on and either an ice pack or heat pack. Dp or i will sit with her not talking or touching her until she is asleep.

Dd was spending three days each fortnight with a migraine until she started the preventor and then it went to one every two months. Now she is on school holidays we have decided to stop the preventor as the side effects were getting a bit too extreme. Her side effects were extreme hunger, so sleepy even on a half dose, and if she got less then twelve hours sleep her behaviour was uncontrollable.

Op keep a food and headache diary, a sleep diary is useful too, this way you can see if there are any triggers or patterns. Also you could ask if pain stop is appropriate for your little one.

Migraines absolutely suck and i feel for any child that gets them.

[Cath42]

My daughter had her first migraine at the age of 4. She turned 8 two days ago. I've never had migraines myself, but I do have a family history of them. My maternal great aunt had them, my mother had them until she was about 50 and my sister gets them.

It took me a while to get my daughter diagnosed. About once every 4 months, she'd wake up sick. The migraines didn't come on gradually. She'd go to bed well and wake up in the morning sick as a dog. Splitting headache, dizzy every time she moved or rolled over, throwing up if she ate or drank anything. I'd manage to get just enough fluid into her to avoid a hospital trip, she'd sleep all night and wake up feeling washed out but a lot better.

This started happening to my sister at age 5 or 6. I remember it vividly. Two years ago, when my daughter was 5, I took her to hospital during an attack and a consultant paediatician worked out pretty quickly it was migraine.

Two years on, I've identified the trigger: tiredness. One late night won't do it, but a series of big events will. This is why they tend to happen in December more than any other time of year. I've had to ban sleepovers, and she probably won't be able to go on 3-day school camps. I haven't been able to identify any other trigger. My sister's trigger seems to be stress or exhaustion. There don't seem to be any food triggers or hormonal triggers.

The reason I've tried so hard to identify triggers is that once a migraine starts, there's nothing you can do. You've just got to wait it out, and it's awful.