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brilliantbaby.com the website that can help you have a happy, smarter child. |
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An accurate and complete description of a child’s headache is extremely important in the diagnosis of headache. Clinicians should get a good clinical history to figure out the cause of headache. The role of parent in the technological age is to give the best clinical headache history so their clinician will have a easier time to make an accurate diagnosis. Here is a format of a good headache history: 1. Tell your clinician how long the headache been going on in weeks or days. 2. Give a description of the first experience of headache and events surrounding it. 3. Is the present headache similar to or different from the first or early headache? 4. Does you child gets more than one type of headache? If so, describe both types of headache. 5. Is the headache increasing in severity and frequency? Grade the headache from 10 to 0. Ten is the most severe and zero is no headache. Recall the approximate date or time when the headache is 10. Then compare it to the most resent headache. 6. Are there warning symptoms or behavioral changes before the headache begins? 7. Are there lights or stars seen before or during the headache? (Some children could even draw what they see.) 8. Let your child point where the headache is? Front, back, side, top of the head. 9. Does the headache interferes with his or her activity? 10. Is there nausea and vomiting? Is there motion-sickness 11. How long does one episode of headache last? An hour, several hours, or a few days? (Tension headache could be constant the whole day.) 12. Is the headache improved by sleep? (Migraine is better after sleeping.) 13. Is there blurring of vision, changes in speech, weakness of the arms, tingling sensation in the arms or legs? (These are sign of a more serious cause of headache.) 14. Is there a trigger of the headache? (Stress, lack of sleep, hunger, fatigue or physical exertion, menstruation, oral contraceptive, food or drinks with nitrates, glutamate, caffeine, tyramine, or salt) 15. How is the school performance? (School phobia could be a cause.) 16. Is there any family issue that could be the cause of headache? (Marital problems between parents, substance abuse, alcoholism can be a source of headache.) 17. Is the child taking some medications whose side effect might be headache? (Tetracycline) 18. Is there migraine in the family? (This is a strong predictor of migraine in a child.) Answer these 18 questions and type it your computer. Then bring it to your clinician during the office visit. This will help improve the health care of your child. Leo Leonidas, MD, FAAP. |
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