8-year-old with constant head-aches

Barbara

Sun, Jul 03 2011, 9:04 pm

abound wrote:

Aidelmaidel- honestly, I do not know what all of the above are.. embarrassed

Out of the list of foods, the only thing he eats sometimes is ketchup. Bissli is a one off food and really nothing else. I will research your list and see if he eats anything else. Problem is he eats lunch in school and I do not know what they serve. Why the list though, what and how do those things effect?
Thank you, and thanks to all who are helping me here.

On that note, have you kept a diary of what he eats/does every day? Then you can see if tehre's any pattern to when the headaches occur.

kitchen designer

Sun, Jul 03 2011, 10:28 pm

Try a Vision Therapist - they do exams that I regular eye doctor doesn't do. That being said I went to a class given by a vision therapist who said that a lot of kids who are diagnosed with things like ADD actually have visual processing issues. These can be fixed with special glasses and/or vision therapies.

aidelmaidel

Sun, Jul 03 2011, 11:42 pm

tikva18 wrote:

abound wrote:

Aidelmaidel- honestly, I do not know what all of the above are.. embarrassed

Foods that a person is senstive to can cause a variety of issues that one may not necessarily connect with the foods that they had eaten. The list that she provided is a few of the potential problem foods, but it certainly is not all inclusive - and it could be that those food happen to not bother your ds. Basically, the more real the food is the less likely it is to cause a problem; however, that does not always work - as my kids can't have dairy, nuts, gluten, corn, and so on - and that didn't even touch the bad guys (flavor enhancers, msg, food coloring, preservatives, diet sugars).

When I said that my ds has headaches daily, that's after the removal of all of his sensitivities.

I agree completely. My specialist gave me a list once of all the things that could trigger headaches and I was shocked to find oranges/citrus fruits on the list.

Each person is different. Keep a diary of what he eats/sleeps/does and when headaches occur, and perhaps you'll find a smoking gun.

abound

Mon, Jul 04 2011, 6:35 am

Thank you all, I really appreciate the overwhelming concern here.
I was trying to figure out when and why this occurs. Problem is that it happens in school. He will call me telling me he has a headache and he wants to leave. I tell him to take tylenol and he calls back and hour later saying he still has it and then he comes home. He comes home and all is fine, he plays with some toys. Goes on errands if I need anything done. (like bringing something to a neigbor etc) I went to the park the other day, he rode his bike in the heat, all without a problem and he did not even take tylenol when coming home. For some reason this does not strike me as a headache, but he even showed me where it hurts him. It must be not too strong of a headache because it does not effect him at home.
When I asked him what happenned in school, did you have a fight, test, Rebbi told you off etc He said all was fine, and he normally does share. He did not come home in a bad mood to make me think otherwise. He said it was just all the kids were screaming and with his headache he could not stay. The thing is he himself plays loudly and loves "war calls" basically loud screaming fun etc.
I will go back to the pediatric neurologist, and if someone has a good recommendation of someone in Israel I would love to get a 2nd opinion.
I guess I will look into his foods, though we eat pretty much "real" food. I do not know what they serve for school lunch though.
Thanks again, and keep the ideas coming it is making me think.... Smile

aidelmaidel

Mon, Jul 04 2011, 7:32 am

No offense, but most school lunches are ****, filled with prepared foods, lots of soup mix (which is just MSG), and nutritionally pretty pour.

Try sending him with his own sandwich, (or let him make his own).

It also sounds like tension headaches.

It could be your son just can't handle a whole day in school.

abound

Mon, Jul 04 2011, 7:51 am

Aidel Maidel- it is a great idea, I will do that or even better, maybe I will bring him something at 1pm when I pick up the younger kids.
I'm also thinking that since school is 2 blocks away, Maybe I will tell him to come home for lunch to give him a break, problem with that is that I won't be able to get him back to school so easily Crying

rydys

Mon, Jul 04 2011, 7:57 am

[quote="abound"He does not have any tension that I can see. He is borderline adhd and is a competitive kid but not out of the range of normal. There is no reason that I can see that he should have and there is no reason for me to believe that he does have any pressures. [/quote]

The fact that you cannot see any reason for him to be tense does not mean that he is not! There may be issues that are bothering him which you do not think are a problem at all. There may even be things which are stressing him which he himself is not aware of!

Definitely take him for therapy, at least a few sessions to see if it helps. You may be surprised.

mazelandbracha

Mon, Jul 04 2011, 10:50 am

My 9 yr old dd kept complaining of not feeling well halfway through the day, and then when I went in for conferences I saw that her room was right under an open section of ceiling, and there was a bucket full of green water underneath the hole. She's allergic to mold. Aha! Could something in the school be a problem?

campmommy

Mon, Jul 04 2011, 12:15 pm

As someone else mentioned, try a vision therapist otherwise known as a developemental optomotrist. Opthamologists often DON"T believe in therapy, so you will not get this suggestion from them. Many headaches come from the fact the eyes do not work well together - a muscle thing, NOT a vision thing and therapy strengthens them. I am talking from personal experience. I especially think this is a good idea to try because you say the headaches happen in school where a ton of reading goes on and that can cause these headaches big time. I spent almost all my high school years with headaches because I did not do therapy and I took my son when he was little and it was amazing! Also, from personal experience, I got glasses with a very low prescription because my mother told the eye doctor who referred us for therapy that there was no way she could afford the therapy and he said, at least give her glasses then. They do help somewhat.
hatzlacha rabah!

Kayza

Mon, Jul 04 2011, 1:07 pm

This could easily be stress related - and the child would not necessarily realize; all the noise could be causing him to tense up without even realizing it. I would definitely check out the possibility of sensory issues.

Another possibility would be something in school setting this off. Those kinds of things can be very hard to track down, but if he has a sensitivity to the cleaner used, or the markers the teacher uses on the board (if he does), or something of that nature, that could cause some really freaky effects like this.

unexpected

Mon, Jul 04 2011, 11:01 pm

We had lots of headaches with our 8 yr old and took him to the ENT first, to the eye doctor (to get his glasses adjusted) second and finally to a neurologist. B"H, he checked out of everything and nothing was wrong but he was still complaining. FInally, I read an article by Dr SUsan Schulman in one of the jewish weeklies discussing headaches and she said that an often-missed component was water. I rememember smacking my forehead in wonder that not one doctor we had seen had mentioned that my son might be slightly dehydrated in school, and sure enough, once he started drinking more the headaches went away completely. Kids often forget to drink, even when they know it can cause them issues and my son forgets every now and then. But every time I tell him to go drink water and the headache goes away!

Fox

Mon, Jul 04 2011, 11:13 pm

Everyone has given great answers, so I'll just share my experience: I had intermittent headaches for over 35 years. I remember getting them as early as kindergarten, and they ranged in intensity from mildly annoying to completely debilitating.

Over the years, I was treated for migraines, tension headaches, jaw misalignment, sinus infections, food allergies, and everything else. I took every OTC and prescription med that came down the pike. None of them did more than temporary good.

I finally went to an acupuncturist, and I was miraculously better after one treatment. Granted, that's not the norm, even for patients who are successfully treated with acupuncture. I go about once every 3 months now, and I haven't had a single headache since.

Kayza

Tue, Jul 05 2011, 9:06 am

unexpected wrote:

Excellent point about the water! I have a tendency to migraines, and one of the triggers for me is overheating and mild dehydration. Imagine I'm not the only one.