Abdominal Migraine - any solutions?
My 13 year old son has been diagnosed with abdominal migraine. He has been prescribed a series of drugs to either to reduce the likelihood of an episode or reduce the duration of an episode. My son has not responded to the treatment. He is unwell most weeks and has missed a lot of school over the past two years. The key aspects of his condition are:
1) he is not unwell during school holidays
2) his episodes typically last 4 days and then he is back to normal
3) his episodes always commence when he wakes in the morning - there are no signs the night before that he will be unwell the next day
4) when he is unwell, he mainly eats toast
5) when he is unwell, he typically has stomach pain, a headache and is nauseous
6) around 10% of the time he vomits at the start of an episode but generally does experience vomiting
Has anyone experienced similar problems to my son. If so, how have you reduced the frequency and duration of episodes?
Thanks
Hi Tim,
Thank you for your question. I'm so very sorry your son is suffering so. Let me see what information I can give you that may help.
Abdominal migraine can occur in children, and make them miserable. We have information about abdominal migraine that includes treatment ideas you can discuss with his doctor here; https://migraine.com/blog/yes-kids-can-have-migraines/.
You may also want to think about see a true migraine/headache disorder specialist rather than a neurologist or pediatric neurologist. While they may be fine doctors, they have a hard time being experts in one area because they treat so many different conditions such as multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's, epilepsy, stroke and others. Migraine/headache disorder specialists are just that, experts in one area AND are board certified in headache medicine which again, is different than being certified in neurology. Let me share with you information on how these doctors are special and how to find one; https://migraine.com/blog/how-are-migraine-specialists-different/ and https://migraine.com/blog/looking-for-a-migraine-specialist/.
I hope this helps,
Nancy
