“About every two weeks Tabea has a migraine attack”

If your daughter Tabitha starts to blink or the ten years of the noise of the siblings, is suddenly too much, know Kathrin Schenk know: A migraine attack begins. “My daughter is extremely light and noise sensitive,” says the 38-year-old mother. The girls have to retreat to bed helps then often, and the best at the darkened Windows.

“About every two weeks Tabea has a migraine attack,” says the mother. The student from Löningen in lower Saxony, Germany is not alone. “More than two-thirds of all school children have regular headaches,” reported Dresdner neurologist Gudrun Goßrau. The proportion of children and adolescents with headache is to take for years. “More children now reach more of the headache frequencies, which are normally the only adult.”


The German migraine and headache society (DMKG) lists, what are the symptoms of children’s have typically in the case of a migraine attack:

  • Affected children listen mostly to play or to learn, are pale, want to lie down and perhaps sleep.
  • Often the children Wake up after a short time, and complaints are largely free.
  • The attacks are shorter than in adults and sometimes in less than two hours.
  • The migraine may be mainly due to the Nausea and vomiting noticeable.
  • Shortly before the attack, you may come to the so-called Aura, for the children to see, for example, flashes of light, feeling, or language disorders.

In a survey of students in Dresden, almost 37 percent of the 2700 girls and boys reported according to Goßrau to have once a month a headache, and almost 32 percent that this is occurring more than twice a month.

The young patients can be advised according to Goßrau easily in a vicious circle: “the school days of absence can lead to a drop in performance, school failure, and school anxiety. Many Sufferers isolate themselves socially, even mental disorders can occur more frequently,” warns the Doctor.

Affected rarely go because of the headaches to the doctor

“Only the least-headache patients to find a doctor,” criticizes the expert. “Headaches are not perceived in our society, often as a “real” disease. The affected children are not rare, they are loud and aggressive.”

A study by the German children’s pain centre at the Vestischen children’s and adolescents ‘ clinic Datteln (North Rhine-Westphalia) showed that headache of students are widely used. More than one in four students (27 percent) reported to have at least once in a month, headaches. The girls were affected, with 35 per cent more likely than men (18 percent).

According to estimates by the German migraine and headache society (DMKG), has for about every tenth child migraine. The hereditary neurological disease can have many symptoms besides severe headaches, even visual disturbances, Nausea, and vomiting.

Migraine attacks can be, according to the experts, while not totally turning off. Affected can but ensure that they occur less often – by avoiding Stress, a lot of move, and a regular daily routine in mind. “In the case of migraine headaches approximately two to three Times helps in regular endurance training for the week. It has a certain amount of deflection function and reduces stressors”, so Goßrau.

A migraine is a seizure, it sometimes helps if the child has been in a darkened room, peace and quiet. Pain relievers are necessary, should only be used once the active ingredients Ibuprofen or Paracetamol acetylsalicylic acid (Aspirin) should not take children under the age of 14.

Whether Doctors seizures in severe migraine a prescription drug to prescribe depends on the individual case. The so-called triptans, the adults, have migraines, are not largely tested in children and not approved, reported the DMKG.

Stress and lack of exercise can promote headaches

More often children children and adolescents suffer from however, not a migraine, but on so-called tension-type headaches.

They can be caused by tight muscles in the shoulder and neck area. Increased media consumption, a more focused in school, mental Stress, for example by bullying, and physical inactivity are considered risk factors.

“Who sits in the school and in their leisure time a lot and on the phone or the Computer looks, the more chances to react with a headache as someone who regularly goes out and physically active,” explains Goßrau.

Outside can help to move to let the headache disappear. As can relaxation exercises to counteract the complaints. Children’s pain relievers, the DMKG also recommends for tension headache Ibuprofen or Paracetamol. In the case of frequently occurring, chronic head pain, however, should be on the medium dispensed, thus no so-called drug-induced head pain.

Kathrin Schenk tries to offer her daughter a stress-free and regular daily routine. In the case of migraine attacks Tabea stays home. “We have to work the fabric out of school later. This works until now quite well,” said the mother. The teachers had, however, unfortunately, there is no understanding. “You expect Tabea comes in spite of a migraine to school.” You know but also to be Concerned, from personal experience, how the disease is feeling, and to stand fully behind their daughter.