7 year old headaches etc

[MikeSA]

My son is 7 years and 3 months old. For the last 3 years he has sporadically seemingly suffered from headaches (seem to vary in severity) followed by vomiting. Despite great efforts to isolate the cause and several visits to doctors in South Africa (we live in Johannesburg). It would seem we have exhausted the basic methods of detection and now would need to pay for a battery of tests.
The bouts of headache and nausea are usually accompanied by a very moany kid. This is clearly understandable but on occasion we have discovered he may have forced the issue well beyond what was actually wrong. He recovers in two modes, the first fairly soon after vomiting (say 10 -30 mins depending often on what games is being played by the neighbours or his younger brother. So his behaviour makes us wonder how much to make of the complaints of headaches etc.
That said, I do not believe he has done this for 3 years in an attempt to deceive us and that the headaches are real, and at times fairly severe.
He requires cool, dark places to lie down and complains he is ‘burning up’ (but often feels cold to touch his skin or forehead when he says it). He may be out of action for anything from an hour to maybe five hours. Generally at 5 hours he would fall asleep and awake fine, and probably hungry.
The real question we have is does this behaviour indicate any classic headaches / nausea patterns for this age and something to very concerned about?

[LauriePri]

My daughter starting having migraines at age 3.  She typically presented with a headache, began moaning or moping around and then she would lie down and sleep, wake up and vomit and be fine.  The length of her nap varied, but most often she was better after vomitting.  Sometimes however she would repeat the nap, vomit, nap, vomit, cycle several times.  

  I don't think he is faking anything in order to decieve you, but kids tend to be more productive with migraines than people would expect them to be.  I know my daughter has participated in competition cheerleading events with a full blown migraine.  I myself would rather cut off my arm than cheer with a migraine, but she has learned to cope with and work through the pain some days.  Then again there are some days when she just can not function enough to get out of bed.

My hope for you and your son is that he outgrows them as my son did.  (He also started getting migraines at age 3, but is now migraine free at 18.)  Best of luck to you and your son.

[DrRakeshMD]

Hi

Your child may be suffering from the condition of migraines; it may be abdominal migraines? Do you have any family histroy of migraines? Does your chils also have abdominal pain assiciated with the headache and vomiting? Generally, children who suffer from migraines have either of the parents having this condition. And children having abdominal migraines are very likely to experience migraines during adulthood also. Abdominal migraine commonly occurs in the age group 5-9 years. Are these attacks of headache and nausea being precipitated by some factor (s)? There may be several triggers of migraine attacks. A prominent trigger in children is food items including chocolate, foods preserved with nitrites or nitrates, which are cold cuts, ham, bacon, sausage and smoked meats like beef jerky. Also caffeine and smoking (pasive/active) may trigger such attacks. Have you noticed any of these triggers or any other trigger in particular? Please take the help of a neurologist.

Best..

[hava]

Let your son do these breathing exercises and you will notice improvements.You can also do the exercises with him and feel the benefits.
Build up your timing gradually.If you feel tired or dizzy, stop and resume after one minute.
Anulom Vilom –
Close your right nostril with thumb and deep breath-in through left nostril  
then – close left nostril with two fingers and breath-out through right nostril  
then -keeping the left nostril closed  deep breath-in through right nostril
then - close your right nostril with thumb and breath-out through left nostril.
This is one cycle of anulom vilom.
Repeat this cycle for 20 to 30  minutes twice a day(maximum 60 minutes in one day).
Children under 15 years – do 5 to 10 minutes twice a day.
You can do this before breakfast/lunch/dinner or before bedtime or in bed.Remember to take deep long breaths into the lungs.You can do this while sitting on floor or chair or lying in bed.

Kapalbhati -(Do it before eating) Push air forcefully out through the nose about once per second. Stomach will itself go in(contract in). The breathing in(through the nose) will happen automatically. Establish a rhythm and do for 20 to 30 minutes twice a day.(Max 60 min/day).Children under 15 years – do 5 to 10 minutes twice a day.
Not for pregnant women. Seriously ill people do it gently.