What is an Abdominal Migraine?

Most people are aware of what a migraine is, but many people have not heard of abdominal migraine before. Abdominal migraine is a form of migraine that is most commonly seen in children. Although it can hit children of any age, it is most common in those aged five to nine years old.

Diagnosis

The diagnosis of this condition is relatively simple, and with a few helpful tips you will be able to take a few things into consideration and determine whether your child has abdominal migraine.

If they have at least five attacks of abdominal pain lasting for a day or more or abdominal pain that is midline location, dull quality, or moderate to severe intensity, then they are considered as having abdominal migraine as according to the diagnostic criteria as established by the International Headache Society.

Symptoms

Sometimes children suffering from abdominal migraine will not experience any symptoms, but they may have bouts of abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, and fatigue. The symptoms that are experienced are almost always of recurrent episodes of midline abdominal pain with most attacks lasting for over three days.

These attacks of pain are usually marked with vomit although this is not seen in all cases and because it is children who are experiencing these attacks, it is much harder for them to handle and treatment has to be much different as well.

The pain of this condition is usually severe enough to interfere with normal daily activities, and the child will often become sad and depressed because they are in pain and because they are not able to play and have fun. They also may find it difficult to distinguish anorexia from nausea.

Treatment

The treatment of abdominal migraine must be taken very seriously because you are dealing with children and can become potentially deadly and even life threatening if left untreated or not treated properly. The treatment of this condition is similar to that of migraine with aura or migraine without aura.

Migraine abortive medications are often the first step, although the doctor will need to be very careful in the medication that they choose for the child in order to make sure that it will not be too strong for them or cause unfavorable side effects. The doctor will also work with the child in order to determine whether certain lifestyle changes such as a change in diet or an increase in exercise will help their condition.