non-drug treatments of migraine for children

Drugs usually provide significant relief from migraines. In addition, you and your child have a safe arsenal of non-drug strategies to draw on as well. Among them are:

Rest — Allow your child to lie down when a headache starts. Isolation in a quiet, dark room may help even more.

Biofeedback — This relaxation technique uses equipment that displays moment-to-moment changes in skin temperature. With this equipment, children can learn to consciously control the temperature of their fingertips (warmer fingers are one sign of relaxation). "This is the behavioral treatment I recommend most commonly," Dr. Buchhalter says. "It has been demonstrated in reasonable scientific studies to be effective. Biofeedback helps kids who are sensitive to medication, and it provides the child with relaxation skills to apply to other potential stressors."

Dietary change — Some children experience relief of migraine when they avoid certain foods.

Headache diaries — Knowing when and where headaches occur can help your child discover and avoid migraine triggers. Help your child write down this information on a daily calendar.

Schedule regular follow-up appointments to assess and adjust your child's treatment plan. Seeing the same physician each time can help your child develop comfort with the care and confidence in the plan. Those attitudes can promote the long-term goal — a life that's as free as possible from the limiting effects of migraine.

migraine treatments for children

Medication for headaches offers three lines of defense.
First-line medication includes over-the-counter pain relievers — Acetaminophen (Tylenol, Panadol), ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin, Nuprin), and naproxen sodium (Aleve) are most common. Because of potential side effects, do not give aspirin or naproxen to a child unless you consult with a physician.
A second group of drugs aims to relieve more severe pain, especially when a headache has already started — Examples are ergotamine and sumatriptan, which are available only by prescription. These are sometimes combined with medications to relieve nausea and vomiting.
The third group includes drugs designed to prevent headaches from starting — Included here are tricyclic antidepressants, beta-blockers, calcium channel blockers and serotonin antagonists. These medications also require a prescription.


Carefully follow the instructions for taking any medication, and be sure to ask your doctor about the potential benefits and risks. In high doses, even over-the-counter pain relievers can be dangerous. Don't give your child pain relievers along with cold medication, as some cold medications already include pain relievers.

To make your child's treatment more effective, ask for a medication schedule that involves the fewest possible doses per day. See if your child can avoid doses during school hours. Also, monitor your child's medication. One simple strategy is to give children medication and stay to watch them swallow it.

treatment for migraine for children

Knowing when to seek treatment for a child's headache can be difficult. Some headaches in children seem clearly linked to a specific event — perhaps an upcoming test or a fight on the playground. In such cases, headaches may soon pass.

In other cases, headaches are so frequent or so painful that they routinely curtail a child's activities. Such headaches can include migraines, and they call for a physician's help.

Dr. Buchhalter recommends that children be seen by their health care provider when headaches lead to significant pain or cause them to miss school, play or other activities.

Chronic headaches in children can arise from many causes besides migraine — tumors, infections, persistent stress, and more. This makes it doubly important to seek medical evaluation and treatment.

Migraine can occur without headache in children

Definitions of migraine vary. In 1988, the International Headache Society offered a set of criteria that has been widely quoted since. According to this definition, a person with migraines:

Has had at least five headaches in a lifetime.

Experiences at least two of the following symptoms: one-sided, throbbing pain that's moderate to severe; pain that worsens with activity; sensitivity to light or sound; nausea or vomiting.

Has symptoms lasting from 2 to 72 hours per occurrence.

Sometimes the symptoms of a migraine occur even without headache, making diagnosis all the more challenging. "Older kids tend to have more abdominal symptoms — so much so that they can have vomiting, stomach discomfort and dizziness in the absence of a headache," says Dr. Buchhalter. "These symptoms are more common in kids than adults."

Researchers are still not sure what causes migraines. However, there's strong evidence that the tendency to have migraines is inherited. One study found that 90 percent of children with migraines had a family history of such headaches.

Cat scratch fever in children

question My daughter has been diagnosed with cat scratch fever and no one really knows much about it. Can you tell me what you know about this infection? Should I get rid of the cat? Can my daughter get it again?

Cat scratch fever, also known as cat scratch disease, is an uncommon infection that occurs mostly in children. It follows a scratch or bite from a cat, usually a kitten, that shows no sign of illness. There is good evidence that the disease is caused by a bacterial agent or agents. In humans, there is usually evidence of infection at the site of injury and swelling of lymph nodes. Fever is present in less than half the cases.

Bacteria in an excised lymph node is strong evidence of the disease, as is a positive skin test to the organisms. However the skin test is not licensed and is not readily available.

Most people recover without treatment. The issue of lasting immunity is not clear but recurrences are rare. In instances where several persons have been scratched by an infected cat, less than 10 percent became ill. It should not be necessary to get rid of the cat.