Do you suffer from migraine headaches, and your child does not? I would not find that reassuring. There are migraine pain relief methods and practices that your child can learn that would delay the onset of migraine headaches in adolescence, that would diminish the pain, and may even be so effective if practiced regularly that the pain threshold is raised, and your child may escape having symptoms!
The fact that someone in your blood-related family, close or extended, suffers from a diagnosed medical condition can be your motivation for having your child evaluated by a medical professional specializing in diagnosing the migraine condition in children.
That possibility needs to be examined further for the medical professionals to determine that your child’s symptoms are migraine-related in its early stages. If necessary, hopefully, education, training, and therapies will help delay, diminish, or even eliminate migraine symptoms in your child before they morph into full-blown migraine headaches (usually during adolescence).
Just because one family member suffers may not mean the other family member is affected; my mother and I suffered from migraine headaches, and my father and little sister (thankfully!) did not).
You need to know that as far as health is concerned, children are not miniature adults. Their metabolism works at a higher speed. What an adult system can tolerate can be life-threatening to a child (a well-known example would be diarrhea).
Finding the time and patience to find answers and solutions will be rewarding.
I once spent a summer vacation crisscrossing my city, visiting every herbalist I could find until I discovered the one that could answer all my questions and free me of chronic sinusitis thanks to their inventory of fresh, dried healing herbs. It was a vacation that turned into a permanent vacation from sinus headaches for both my mother and me.
What are your local resources? Your child’s pediatrician, a nearby children’s hospital with a migraine clinic, a university medical center, an integrative clinic, a migraine foundation – with my “leave no stone unturned” approach, I’d consult everyone until whatever my child is repeatedly suffering from is eliminated, or until I receive a confirmation that we are not dealing with a chronic condition such as the inherited predisposition to migraines.
The solution could be as simple as an adjustment in diet. How often has a child been accused of a behavioral issue when, in fact, the cause is an unrecognized and untreated medical condition?
The simplest example occurs around Easter, Halloween, and Christmas – feed children enough candy and watch how they become hyperactive, begin misbehaving, become uncontrollable, bounce off the walls, becoming disobedient… remove the excessive sugar or feed them more natural sugars with plenty of fiber (a lot less fun!) and watch the improved nutrition have a direct impact on their personalities. Like magic – the children become their own sweet selves!
We sometimes laugh at how children react with great distaste to a particular food – only to find out later that it’s harmful. Laughing at a healthy instinctual reaction is okay – to me, it is a recognition that the child’s self-defense and self-protective mechanisms are working as they should.
Pressuring the child to drink or eat the food it finds unpalatable in my book is NOT okay. Eating aims to ingest specific vitamins, minerals, proteins, carbohydrates, etc., necessary to sustain life and optimal health. If one food does not do it, then another will. Family tradition and Auntie Alfonsamina’s culinary ego must take a backseat to the child’s authentic, self-protective reaction. It may be one less habit they’ll have to unlearn later on.
Moderation is only sometimes preferable – sometimes avoidance is the better choice! Example: allergic reactions to certain foods or liquids.
If you have taken steps to have your child medically evaluated, if the professionals have confirmed that your child is dealing with an inherited medical migraine condition, and if a competent migraine integrative clinic has begun to give your child the life skills and tools to improve their health and slow down or even slam the brakes on your child’s migraine condition: Congratulations! You have changed a life dramatically for the better. It’s an excellent excuse for a celebration.
