My almost 10 year old son has been getting bad headaches probably since last school year. I do now have an appt. with a pediatric neurologist (January - it takes 4 months to get an appt), but in the meantime he has had at least 10 headaches since the start of this school year. I get migraines, my older daughter had migraines, so I'm sure that's what they are. Meanwhile the pediatrician has given us a presciption for Tylenol/codeine to hold him over till he sees the neurologist. So he misses school now at least once a week. Should I just send him with a headache and wait for the nurse to call (he usually throws up) or just keep him home every time he has a headache. Don't know what to do??? I feel bad keeping a kid home with a headache, but then again, don't feel like waiting for that call. He's home today - sleeping - I told him I would wake him in a few hours to see if he's OK to go to school.

By Emily7 on Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - 10:15 am:

My brother had migranes after an accident we were in. One of the things my mom did was laid his head on her lap & did relaxing techniques with him. It worked better than the meds ever did. I would keep him home, because maybe you can avoid them getting to the point of him vomiting. Have you had his eye sight checked?

By Kay on Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - 12:37 pm:

I've had migraines since I was 11 years old.

A fairly new product on the market is a cold patch that you can put on your forehead. It's made by the mentholatum company, and is called WellPatch. You take the patch out of the packet, peel off the plastic, and place it stick side to your skin. It stays on and delivers just the right amount of coolness to soothe the pain without being in danger of frostbite (as in leaving an icepack on for too long).

I swear by this product!

By Cybermommyx4 on Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - 12:51 pm:

Peggy,
This works for my DS (16) who has had migraines since he was about 7 or 8. (I had them as a child, though at the time they didn't think children got migraines, and I have them now - and now I take Amerge or Imitrex) Try one tablet of sudafed, one Excedrin, and an alka seltzer. (have him drink the dissolved alka seltzer in water, and then take the sudafed and excedrin with plain water) It won't hurt him, and it might work wonders! I wouldn't do it more than once or twice a week, though, without checking with a doctor to see if there is some other cause.It seems to work for DS 90% of the time, and doesn't cause the drowsiness that narcotics do. It enables him to still go to school/do homework, etc. I hope he starts feeling better!

By Ginny~moderator on Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - 01:04 pm:

At the place where I worked until recently, a coworker's 8 year old son has migraines. It is basically a rule-out diagnosis situation. I know he had at least one MRI and maybe a second with contrast dye and I think a CAT scan. When all other possible causes of the headaches were ruled out they began medication, which has been very helpful. She also had to talk to the principal and school nurse and bring a note from the doctor so that her son could get headache medication (Execedrin or something similar) immediately and teach her son to report immediately when he began to have a headache.

By My2girlygirls on Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - 01:30 pm:

My 9 year old dd has mild migraines. Her ped. told us that AS SOON AS she feels her head beginning to hurt to take ibuprofen, Motrin or Advil, and try to lay down for a few minutes to let the meds work. This has worked for her so far. She is recognizing when one is coming and getting the meds right away. You may want to try something simple before other narcotic meds...

By Peggy13 on Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - 09:43 pm:

Thanks everyone. I like the idea of that cold patch - have to try it. I did send him to school late today - he still didn't feel great but made it through the day. I gave him some Motrin - that seemed to work better than the prescrption Tylenol/codeine. Just have to wait a few months till we see the specialist - hopefully we won't have too more till then.

By Katherine on Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - 10:25 pm:

As you could see from my dog poopie post, my Scotty had a migraine today and threw up.

He has had them since he was five. His ped had us keep a diet chart to see if any foods may be triggering them. Shortly after we started that, they subsided a little and got less frequent.

We have never put him on any meds, but they seem to be coming more frequently now. He missed school the day before he went on fall break, and today was only his 2nd day back from vacation and he had another one.

I think I will go get him checked again, since they are becoming more frequent and always with vomiting.

Is the cold patch over the counter??

By Kay on Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - 10:30 pm:

One medication to be careful of is Excedrin - it's been known to cause rebound headaches if it's used on a regular basis. This is due to the caffeine - while caffeine can help in some cases, it can also cause caffeine addiction.

My neurologist was the one who was the first to warn me of this - the rest I learned on various migraine listserves, etc.

After over 30 years of dealing with it, I feel especially bad when I hear of children having to go through this. My youngest dd, at 14, just had her first full-blown migraine a few weeks ago.

By Kay on Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - 10:31 pm:

Yes, the cold patch is over the counter - it's usually in the pain relief section, and may be in the vicinity of the heat patches that you can stick on.

By Bobbie~moderatr on Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - 10:56 pm:

DS had this issue also. We had his eyes checked and low and behold he is practically blind. whoops!! Anyway, He didn't know he couldn't see because he had never properly seen. So other than the migraines I didn't see the other symptoms and he had no other complaints. He was also 10 by the way. The strain on his eyes trying to focus brought on the migraines which 9 times out of 10 would lead to vomiting. Since he has started wearing glasses he has had a few head aches but nothing a couple of tylenol couldn't get rid of. Turns out my father had the very same issue as a child.

By Cocoabutter on Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - 11:03 pm:

Don't know anything about migraines, so you might just as well skip over my post ;) but I had severe headaches a few years ago and my new dentist took one look at my teeth and asked me if I grind my teeth at night. I got a bite splint to wear at night which helps cut down on the friction between my jaws when I grind. No more headaches!

I also used to get stress headaches, and my dr said I had high blood pressure, so now I am on Cozaar and I don't get stress headaches.

I sometimes get sinus headaches, but that's b/c I have allergies real bad. If I take an anti-histamine with a pain reliever, those go away quickly too.

By Peggy13 on Wednesday, October 20, 2004 - 02:23 pm:

Yes, I'm going to buy those Cold patches today - won't use Exedrin (asprin) on a 10 year old. I do use that myself and did just hear about too much medication can lead to rebound headaches. Thanks for everybody's input.