Toddler with sudden pain at the base of the skull

[Alyssa0411]

My son turns 4 in a couple months.  Last night he went from running around and playing with his 6 year old sister and uncle to crying and saying his head hurt.  We never heard or saw him fall but all of a sudden he was holding the back of his head. This is when we sat down for dinner and he didn't want to eat.  He kept complaining about his head hurting.  At first I thought he was being a little dramatic and I feel terrible for feeling that way.  He kept crying throughout dinner and that's when I knew something was up.   I gave him some children's Tylenol and put him to bed but he was still in pain. It's like the Tylenol did nothing for him.

This morning at 8:30am I woke up to him crying.  He was complaining about his head hurting.  I'm really concerned now.  I went to "Dr. Google" which brought me here.  He is still crying, it's 10am now.  I think I'm going to bring him to see a Dr. because if you barely move him, he cries out in pain.  I hope this isn't anything serious, I have never experienced this before, even with my oldest child.  Has anyone ever come across anything like this?

[rpwoodard]

I' m very glad your son feels better.
Now it's been a day since he received the Advil. Does he still feel better?

Thank you for updating us.

[Alyssa0411]

We went into Urgent Care and the Dr. felt the back of his neck and thought he must have pulled a muscle.  It was pin-pointed to the left side of the spinal area.  He was given some children's Advil and within 15-20 minutes he was feeling a lot better.  We have been home for about 2 hours now and he had not complained of any sort of pain at all.  I'm feeling pretty relieved at the moment.  You never like seeing your children in pain and it's a horrible feeling to be almost helpless in making them feel okay.   So for now (hopefully) this case is closed.  :)