Headache In Children: Causes And Treatment

69% of children suffer a normal headache episode during their childhood. Although headaches in children can be due to many factors, in most cases it is not due to any that should alarm us. However, we must be vigilant, since in some cases it may be related to a serious illness.

Factors that produce headaches in children:

Headache can be of two types depending on its origin: primary and secondary headaches. Primary headache involves some change in your brain ; it can be due to chemicals, dilated blood vessels, or muscle tension.

Secondary headache is one that occurs as a symptom of some other disease. Some of the most common are:

• Infectious diseases.
• Non-infectious illnesses such as the flu, a cold, or any other viral illness.

• Trauma to the skull.
• Allergies or sensitivity to any food.
• Physical exhaustion.
• Hunger or dehydration
• Tooth or gum problems.
• Drug or toxin involvement.

It is very important not to self-diagnose the child and take him to the pediatrician for an examination and determine the real cause.

Although it is not the most common, there is also the possibility that a headache in children is a symptom of a more serious disease. Therefore, if your child has a very severe headache for an excessive period of time, it is important that the doctor review his medical history and perform a thorough examination.

In the same way, we must act if the child presents any of the following complications:

1. Dizziness or loss of vision
2. Stiff neck or weakness at some point in your body.
3. Loses speech, has trouble pronouncing words, or alters the order of words.
4. Mental confusion.

How to take care of my child at home?

As we have already seen, headaches can occur for various reasons. Based on that, we can increase the care of the child at home and help reduce the symptoms in the following way:

• It is important that we provide you with a pleasant resting place where you can lie down and sleep if you wish. When suffering from headache, the noises are very annoying for most of the patients; therefore, it is recommended that such a place be as quiet as possible and that it be dark.
• We should not force our child to make physical efforts.

• If the child suffers from a headache because he is hungry or dehydrated, it is very important that we use our best weapons to eat well and drink plenty of water, so that this does not lead to more serious complications.
• We can provide you with pain reliever  when pain symptoms begin if you have had very severe episodes, especially if you have already been diagnosed and have migraines, and as long as your pediatrician allows us.
• If the headache in the child is not very bad,  we can help him to distract himself so that he can entertain himself and forget, as far as possible, the pain.

Tips to prevent headaches in children:

• If the cause of the headache is stress or tension, it is essential to maintain regular schedules and disciplines to try to make it go away as soon as possible. It is advisable to have a fixed schedule of school activities, exercise, leisure, sleep, etc.

• It is very important to find out if there is a trigger in these crises. For example; Do they always happen when you come home from school? When doing a lot of physical exercise? After a meal? This will help us to determine what is happening and to take and take action to help prevent headache.
• Avoid closed spaces with many people that can cause you to be overwhelmed.

• Go to the eye doctor and check the child’s vision. It is advisable to go to the ophthalmologist after the beginning of each new school year. In this way we will make sure that you do not have vision problems and, in case you do not see well, we will prevent you from suffering the headaches that are often associated with it.

• Prevent your exposure to the sun  without protection.

If, despite all these actions, your child does not show improvement or his headache increases, it may be necessary for you to take him back to the pediatrician for a thorough examination of his individual symptoms and a thorough study of his situation.