Migraines

[greymaster98]

I was curious about RAD children in general in relation to migraines or headaches.  My DS11 seems to have headaches, but I'm a chronic migraine sufferer and he sees how I get.  I don't know if he really has headaches or if he's faking.  I could see with his mind racing the way it does how he might have headaches.  Anyone else have a RADish with headaches?

[blessingsindisguise]

Dd17 has migraines.  Started last year when the stress of ds started to peak.  Had her run through a bunch of tests.

Finally found a med combination that works and have helped her learn more coping mechanisms.

She is healing, so her physical complaints are legit.

My non healing radishes use headaches and such to their advantage and it's much harder to figure out.

But when they are ill they get tucked into bed, lights out, as they need their rest to get better, so they don't try real often.

For your son, I'd just keep a log of headaches, and see if they correspond with any stressors that you can identify. 

It's hard.  It's so much easier when they are running a temp and it's obvious they are sick.

Not much help, I know....non specific complaints are the hardest.

blessings

[justine]

No, mine didnt.  Oldest rad loved to say she later that she "had a migraine for 3 days."   During those 3 days she would carry on as usual...nasty usual of course.    Once i rattled off the symptoms, including nausea, blinding eye pain, staying in a dark room etc...and she said, "Exactly!"    (she had been with us or at school the whole 3 days and never said a word....

FInally i found out that her only friend had migraines.   I grew suspicious when dd asked to see "a neurologist" for tests.   She always desperately wished for a desperate illness....to match her heart pain i suppose.

Later she had a slip and told me that she couldnt go out with her friend because the friend had an appointment with a neurologist.  busted! 

The headaches disappeared in a few weeks when her "best friend" became yet another bitter enemy.  sigh!

[ginwoman]

Hello, I'm Ginger.  I was a long-standing member and somehow didn't post for a while and got bumped out.  Anyways, my adopted ds gets migraines all the time.  When we adopted him he came with a diagnosis of seizure disorder, yet never had a seizure.  He was taken off depakote.  During the last 6 yrs, we've come to realize that watching TV or reading too much triggers his migraines as well as being hyperstimulated.  It's difficult to keep him calm in today's society where you can't even go to Burger King without 5 TVs in the restaurant! 

We had him tested for everything you can imagine, worrying that the seizures were possilby coming back (even though we never had proof they ever existed other than it was a formal diagnosis that he came with)  To no  avail, we were pretty much told it is fairly common for children with neurological disorders to get migraines.  (bipolar, ODD, RAD, OCD, ICD, PTSD)  So, we now stick to trying to keep him calm and limit TV and reading and when he gets a migraine we try to help him recognize the onset so he can go lie down and hopefully catch it at a headache before it becomes a full-blown migraine.

iadopted3/ginwoman

[Don M]

Hi Ginger;
   Sorry you had problems & needed to change screen names.

   I don't have migraines myself, but my dw had them for many years and has been free of them for a while now after some careful checking.  In her case it was a spinal issue where an old injury and posture combined.  She got good relief from an initial Chiropractor resetting the injured vertebre area repeatedly until the muscles and posture could become more comfortable in the new positions.

   My kids have once in a while reported big headaches that were enough to limit their activity and lasted for hours.  For our family, this is not common but I cannot project that into anything like the statement that neurological disorders do or don't come with migraines.

   You probably already know most of what it says, but there is a good summary on the Mayo Clinic site, including some of the alternate medicine approaches that have helped others:

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/migraine-headache/DS00120

   It mentions herbs, vitamins, minerals, but we have found that food preservatives and some coloring/flavor additives seem to also be related.

   Good luck tracking down the things which will help, and helping your ds to learn what might be warning signals or ways he can reduce or shorten the time for the pain.

[luvmyboy]

My husband had migraines for many years.  His problem was chocolate in any amount.  He no longer has them, but that happened because of his age.  The get less as one grows older.  I know that wasn't any help. . .