Causes and treatment of a child's headache

1 Self diagnosis of the disease

It happens that very little children under 3 years old who suffer from a headache are still suffering from a headache. They still can not say what hurts them. Understand that the child is worried about the headache, you can by his behavior. The baby becomes restless, cries, the face becomes a painful expression. He can grab his hair or hold his head with his hands. Sometimes children try to avoid moving headlong, when they stop, and sometimes the child, on the contrary, shakes it from side to side.

These symptoms are observed not only in infancy. It can also be a headache in a child 3-6 years old. Children of school age in most cases can already more clearly describe what bothers them.

It happens that a child complains of a headache, taking for such pain in the ear or in the eye area. It may be that the baby has pain in the neck, and he complains that his head hurts. It often happens with children 3-5 years. Clarifying questions will help clarify the situation. You can ask to show your finger where it hurts.

If it became clear that the baby suffers with a headache, it will be superfluous to find out the degree of pain intensity with the help of questions and an assessment of the behavior( it hurts badly or not very much).It is necessary to try to understand where the pain sensations are localized. Sometimes half of the head hurts, but the pain can cover the entire head. Determine if pain occurs in the morning or develops throughout the day. This information can be very important for diagnosing.

It should be understood that if a child often has a headache, then it can talk about serious illnesses. It is essential to consult a doctor for examination and taking the necessary measures.

2 Etiology of the disease

The reasons why children suffer from a headache are very similar to those that cause such conditions in adults. They can be divided into several groups:

• diseases affecting the brain and its membranes;
• pathological processes occurring in other areas of the head that are not associated with brain damage;
• disorders of the general state of the body due to diseases of a different nature;
• functional disorders in the body, provoking pain in the head.

We will discuss in more detail each group of causes and diseases that cause frequent headaches in children of different ages.

3 Child complaints

Sometimes children experience pain in the head, not associated with any diseases. It happens that such complaints begin to show children older than 8 years, coming home after school. Especially if the educational institution does not pay enough attention to children's rest during the change. Any overwork and overstrain can manifest themselves with such symptoms, which after rest and sleep can pass by themselves.

The headache of a child is almost always due to any poisoning. In this case, in addition to complaints of pain in the head, there is still a sudden onset of nausea, diarrhea or vomiting( sometimes with a fever).Poisoning, especially in young children up to 3-4 years of age, can have very serious consequences.

The hormonal background in the body can change with age. This explains the occurrence of headaches in children and adolescents. Such symptoms, which appeared after 12 years, can be provoked by the onset of puberty. It happens that the hormonal background in the body begins to change as early as 9 years. However, if the head hurts badly or the headaches in adolescents are repeated regularly, then a neurological examination is necessary.

4 Symptoms of the disease

If the pathological process has affected the brain or its membranes, you can observe a certain group of symptoms called in meningean signs:

• strong tension( stiffness) of muscles located on the back surface of the neck;
• is a strong strain of muscles that provide flexion of the legs in the knees and hip joints( Kernig symptom).

Neuropathologists and neurosurgeons check for the presence of such symptoms by whether they are there or not, assessing a person's condition. If you can not press your chin to your chest, then the rigidity of the neck muscles is present. It happens that the baby is lying, unnaturally tilting his head back, trying not to move.

The Kernig Symptom is checked as follows. Put the patient on his back, his leg bent at the knee and raised at a right angle. If the knee joint can not be unraveled, the Kernig symptom is considered positive.

Meningeal signs indicate that the brain and its membranes are significantly irritated by the development of a pathological process in them.

If you suspect a similar pathology in any case, you can not delay with hospitalization. Delay can cost a child's life!

Such conditions can occur in children of any age due to trauma or inflammation in the brain.

Contusions of brain tissue or its concussions are manifested by the presence of nausea, a violation of orientation in space, there is a brief loss of consciousness. In addition, of course, the head is very sore. But meningeal signs will be positive only in severe injuries, accompanied by a hemorrhage in the brain and swelling of its tissues, or because of the irritation of the brain envelopes with the fragments of the bones of the injured skull with craniocerebral trauma.

Inflammatory diseases of the tissues and membranes of the brain are most often represented by arachnoiditis, meningitis, and encephalitis. These are very serious diseases that can have health consequences in the future. They are accompanied by a significant increase in body temperature. In addition to a headache, the child may have convulsions and mental disorders. Immediate hospitalization is required.

Pain in a child is accompanied by the appearance in the brain tissues of bulk neoplasms( cysts or tumors).Glistular invasion can also cause headache in children. When a pathology of this nature arises, the pains are localized in one place and are not removed by anesthetics. Vomiting may occur, malfunctions in the heart or breathing are noted. Infringements differ depending on the place of appearance of the neoplasm. An experienced neurosurgeon can determine, by the presence or absence of certain violations, where the pathological process developed.

Sometimes children suffer from so-called cerebrospinal hypertension. This phenomenon is associated with increased intracranial pressure, when the amount of cerebrospinal fluid for any reason increased or disrupted its circulation. This leads to the fact that within the cerebral ventricles the pressure constantly increases, causing a headache in children. Absence of treatment is fraught with very serious consequences in the form of encephalopathy, caused by traumatization of brain tissue.

5 Intoxication of the body

Often the causes of the headache are covered in intoxication. It arises from the fact that the products of cell disintegration appear in the blood, appearing in any inflammatory process in the body. Also, the headache in children can be a consequence of an increase in body temperature.

If a child is prone to frequent inflammatory diseases, it is necessary to carefully monitor its condition. After all, if a child of 7 years old can complain that his head hurts badly, then the baby who does not know how to speak will not be able to ask for help. You have to guess everything by evaluating his behavior.

In cases where colds often occur, the head may be aching due to a permanent nasal congestion. Especially this phenomenon occurs when the inflammatory process spreads to the air sinuses. If the middle ear is involved in the process( there was acute or chronic otitis), then pain in the head can accompany it.

Often, a child's headache can be caused by a violation of the hormonal background( as happens in adolescents).Migraines appear in children after 10 years of age. There may be pain in the morning or throughout the day. With this disease the child complains that it hurts from one side of the head. Suffering add sounds and light. Nausea grows, maybe even vomiting. Constantly repeated attacks of such pain require treatment from a neurologist.

The release of toxins into the bloodstream, if the child has been exposed to toxic agents, can cause severe headaches. This is not just food poisoning. Poisons can enter the body through the skin or lungs.

In children suffering from astigmatism or nearsightedness, the head can be very sore after a long eye strain: after a long viewing of TV shows or playing on the computer, classes and long reading. It happens that children simulate such a state, trying to avoid going to school. However, the examination of such a child is still necessary.

6 First aid to baby

If the head hurts in a child who is only 3-4 years old or less, then you should not treat it yourself with analgesic medications that are shown to adults. Uncontrolled reception of such funds can cause irreparable harm to the health of the baby. Medicinal preparations can be given to a child only after consulting a specialist, without violating the recommended doses.

However, at home, you can and should try to relieve the headache in children with the help of some techniques. It is very possible that even such simple actions will be enough to stop the child's head from ache:

• provide fresh air access - to ventilate the room, you can walk along the street if the patient's condition allows;
• provide maximum rest( not only physical, but also psycho-emotional), sleep in the garden, on the balcony or veranda will best help, if weather conditions permit( the head end of the crib or baby stroller should be slightly raised);
• of an older child( 5-9 years old), you can try to distract from painful feelings by calm conversation about what will help him to experience positive emotions( especially if the headache in children has arisen after stress, fright);
• is very effective is a distraction therapy - a bath with warm water or baths for hands and feet, massage the collar zone, you can put a cold compress on your head or wash your baby's face with warm water( such procedures affect the tone of blood vessels in the body, and hence the bloodstreamand can give the child a quick relief from pain);
• if the headache is a consequence of poisoning, it is necessary to clean the intestines with a cleansing enema, which will reduce the ingress of poisons from the large intestine into the bloodstream;
• analgesic is best given to a child only after consultation with a doctor( the most popular are drugs containing paracetamol, which is considered most harmless, children older than 6 years if necessary give analgin or aspirin at the dosage prescribed by the doctor).

These simple tricks are effective even in migraine attacks in children older than 10 years, but may not give relief. If the headaches continue for a long time and are not stopped by the above methods, a neurological examination is necessary. It is necessary to find out why the child often has a headache. If a serious illness develops, the lack of treatment can lead to disastrous consequences.