Headache is been felt by everyone at some point of time.It is the pain felt around neck and head region mostly around the temples.
Headaches are the most stressful pain. It is very difficult to work with it. You can’t take an off from work with this as an excuse. But still many of us adults use it as an excuse to come out of a situation. For example, our kid is crying to go out to play, you make an excuse saying you have an headache and you can not come. The little ones learn from us. They also make such excuses to run away from their home-work and chores.
But we must not ignore their cute excuses. Sometimes it can be a genuine pain. Headache in children is no good different from adults.Children s do feel the same kind of pain and stress but the duration and intensity of the headache differs.
Headache is experienced by many children and teenagers. It can be throbbing, aching or dull. It is like migraine but of shorter duration. It can lead to tightness of neck muscles, nausea and sensitivity to sound and light.
Causes of Headaches in Children:
Headaches are usually due to chemical changes happening in our brain. This gives the brain a signal of pain. Headache are not caused randomly in children,it is felt because of underlying causes. Some of the main causes are:
1. Illness:
Some of the common illness seen in children are cold,flu,sinusitis. A runny nose and cold can block the nerves of brains. This could start pain in the head. They are usually along with other symptoms like flu, fever and stiff neck. It could be due to meaning it is or encephalitis.
2. Infection:
Infections often spike up temperature. This high temperature makes you irritable and gives headache. Often infection could be the cause of abdominal pain.
3. Stress Factors:
Kids now a days go through a lot of stress. They have studies, sports, music, dance and many more extracurricular activities. This can be very stressful both physically and mentally. This can be very exhausting. Lack of energy, incomplete diet can give headache. Normally calming exercise like yoga, high energy food can relieve the pain.
4. Emotional Factors:
Often kids now a days face a lot of peer pressure. This often leads to lot of emotional imbalance. This makes the child sensitive. Being bullied is also a cause of emotional stress. All this spikes up the brain activity giving the kid an headache.
5. Head Trauma:
You can never stop a child from playing. They are jumping from one place to other. This often leads to injuries. Sometimes these injuries are on the head. This may cause severe pain. Often medication is given to the kid. If there is an dizziness, vomiting or nausea then it is advised to see a doctor.
6. Genetic Factors:
Genes factor run in family. This gives us facial feature, body structure, nature, food pattern and diseases. This makes us vulnerable to diseases big like heart condition to small like migraine. You can simply prevent it by avoiding noise, cold and things that spike the pain.
7. Foods and Drinks:
Kids now a days are exposed to lot of sugary diet. Cold drinks, cakes, chocolates, energy drinks often spike up the blood sugar level. This makes the brain over active. Kids go nuts doing all crazy stuff. Over activity of brain and physical fatigue results in headache.
8. Brain Abnormalities:
Many a times tumors, bleeding and abscess causes headaches. This pain is unbearable. It keeps increasing with time. Most of the times, it is accompanied with symptoms like dizziness, less coordination and vomiting.
9. Too Much of Screen Time:
If you look around, there are hardly any gardens left for children to play. They are caught up in houses. This has started children to be glued to TV and mobile phones. This strains the eyes. This cause the nerves of brain to strain too. This causes headache. It could become migraine if exposure to screen is not stopped or reduced.
10. Hormonal Imbalance:
All teenager go through a lot of hormonal changes. When they hit puberty, the hormonal mixture both in girls and boys makes them lost. They don’t have a clue about almost everything. The hormones makes them cranky, moody and rebellious. This gives them a headache. especially when they are going through a lot of physical changes and balancing life. It is very taxing on their brains.
See More: Best Medicine For Headache
Treatments to Relief from Headaches in Children:
Normally you would calm your child, give her some mealand put her to bed, if she has a headache. There
are many ways to deal with it. Here are few.
Medication:
Advil, Ibuprofen, Aspirin are few over the counter medicines for headaches. These are pain killers. They should not be given without the guidance of doctor. They can be fatal and come with serious side effects like brain and liver damage. Small babies and toddlers must not be given any medication without consulting a pediatrician.
Meditation and Yoga:
Many schools have started teaching yoga. Yoga helps to relax your mind and nerves. This is very effective in ADS kids. Yoga has a big part called as meditation. It involves the child to sit in one place and close their eyes and brains. This makes the child calm and increases its attention. It also makes the kid more relaxed and self aware. Studies have found it to be very effective in case of chronic headaches.
Biofeedback Training:
Biofeedback training is controlling your bodily functions. Just the way we can control our stoles and urine. It includes heartbeat, breathing and muscle tension. It is done by breathing techniques. It gets your child to a better place where he can cope with headache much better. This technique is used by saints who meditate for months without food and water. It was also seen in movie ‘Hulk’. He control the heartbeats to control his anger.
Many times kids suffer from headache due to the mental stress. This makes it more difficult for them to express themselves. At times like this, counseling comes in handy. A counselor listens to all their problems. He suggests better ways to cope with the problems. Often children find it difficult to open up, but it is the counsellor s job to find the problem through behavior of child. It also helps to stop bullies.
Comfort Food:
Normally we would have a cup of tea or coffee to refresh our minds. But we can not give caffine to kids.Comfort food for kids could be anything you like to eat, like chocolates, desserts, ice-cream, burger, cheese slice, etc. Many a times we are low on blood sugar which causes headache. At such times, our body tells us what we need something sweet. To calm the child down, giving him his favourite candy should not be a problem. This will not only relax them but also you.
Home Remedies:
Small babies are massaged in night and swaddled to put to sleep. This relaxes them and helps to get good long sleep. Many times after a tiring day at school, our mothers would massage our head with oil and put us to sleep. All this oiling and massages are age old technique to relax our muscles and brains. It eases out the tensions. Plus the aromas of oil often put the kids into longer and deep sleep.
Another home remedy is putting cool cloth over the eye lids. Normally a muslin cloth is dipped in cool rose water and kept over the eye lids. This relaxes the mind. Often too much of TV causes eyes to strain. This problem is also solved by it.
Neck Massage:
Most of the time due to strenuous physical activities, our muscles tighten up. It happens mostly when kids carry so much weight in their bag over their shoulder. This causes the muscles of the neck and shoulder to be tensed and tight. This causes headache. You can simply massage them to relax. Small exercise can also relieve stress.
Hydration:
Normally kids tend to out run themselves while playing. They don’t pay attention to their body needs like food, water and toilet. Often this leads to hunger and dehydration. Dehydration can cause the brain to stress and put extra efforts to work. This causes headache. It is advised to have lots of water. Normally a kid won’t have the patience to have water again and again. So it is suggested to give them sugar free drinks to keep them hydrated.
Ice Packs:
When there is any head injury it is always advised to put ice pack on the area of pain. It relieves the inflation. This reduces the pain. You should never use heat, as it worsens the pain.
Headache for kid can be very annoying not only to him but to his parents too. They don’t really know how to express themselves, so understanding of symptoms can be difficult. Simple home remedies or mild medicine can give them comfort. Let’s help them enjoy beautiful childhood without any pressure and pain.
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