brilliantbaby.com the website that can help you have a happy, smarter child.

Headache is common in children. In 1962, researchers in Sweden found that by 6 years old 39% of children suffered from headache in a population of 9,000 school-age children. This figure increased to 70% by 15 years old. Other researchers claimed a higher number, 82%.

The benign causes of headache in children are migraine, sinusitis, colds, allergy, tension headache, stress, and psychological problems. These are the common causes of headache.

The uncommon causes which are serious are space-occupying abnormality (brain tumor) and inflammation/infection in the brain or surrounding areas.

The features of serious headaches are:

   * Frequent head pain worse in the morning; worse with coughing, sneezing and straining. It progresses in severity or frequency.

   * With morning vomiting.

   * Double vision

   * Edema of the optic disk (eye examination by a clinician)

   * Focal neurologic symptoms and findings (e.g.. weakness of the arm, tingling sensation, seizures, etc.)

   * With high fever and vomiting.

Call a clinician for any headache that is severe or persistent.

Leo Leonidas, MD, FAAP

[Home] [Smart Baby] [Baby Math] [Our Graduates] [Toddlers] [Pre-School] [Today] [Diagnosis] [Medical Errors] [Physical Examination] [Treatment] [Best Practice] [Parents Grand Rounds] [Fever & Belly Pain] [Medical Decisions] [About Us]