Headaches in Children

Emma Howard: Hello I am Emma Howard and I am joined by Dr Su Laurent, who is a Consultant Paediatrician at Barnet Hospital in Hertfordshire, hello Su. Su Laurent: Hello Emma. Emma Howard: I got a question here about an eleven year–old girl. Her mom says she has such bad headaches that she has missed a lot of school this term. My doctor says she doesn’t need a scan but I am becoming increasingly worried about her. So what you think the signs are that this girl is having bad headaches? Su Laurent: Well, headaches are really, really common and they are really worrying for parents. And obviously at eleven, she’ll be telling her mom she is having headaches. And often looking like she is in pain and she may look rather pale, it is important to really that you do see a doctor and get your child checked out if they are getting regular headaches because there are important things that doctors can do just by looking, that should be reassuring. One of the things that we do is, we take a child’s blood pressure, we look at the back of the eyes. And these are signs to try and eliminate what we call raised intracranial pressure, that’s raised pressure in the brain causing headaches, very unusual but if you get signs, abnormalities of these things, then you will be more likely to do a scan. We also test the child’s coordination when they have headaches because if a child has got something like a brain tumor, which is always in the back of every parent’s mind. Emma Howard: Yes, the ultimate fear. Su Laurent: Exactly. One of the common things that happen first is that they get poor coordination, so that’s one of the important things that we look at. Most children with headaches don’t have a brain tumor, don’t have a problem in their brain that’s causing a headache, but many parents are very, very anxious. Emma Howard: So this woman should be reassured if her doctor is saying, she doesn’t need a scan, he’s done those tests, he’s not worried. Su Laurent: Yes. But parental anxiety can make a child headaches carry on because if the parent is anxious, the child is anxious. And if her mother is still very worried, she is perfectly entitled to ask for a second opinion from a paediatrician, who may well get through the same tests again. And I must say I find sometimes the paediatricians -- I find myself ordering a scan because parents are so worried, I know the scan is going to be normal. But sometimes, we just can’t move on until we know that the -- everyone knows that, that scan is helpful. Emma Howard: Which are helpful for the parents and also much helpful for the child. Su Laurent: Yeah. And most parents don’t want scans, but just -- if sometimes if they are so fixated, it’s almost due to the family reason or family histories and that we sometimes land up doing a scan. Emma Howard: Yeah and ultimately will produce the effect that you want but you are only going to get it if you really reassure them. Su Laurent: But several steps back with just an important thing says, many of us have headaches, because we are a little bit dehydrated and lots of school age children –- Emma Howard: Don’t drink enough water. Su Laurent: Don’t drink enough water, I always saying this. Finally, most headaches are actually due to a level of anxiety. So it’s truanted on the level, what’s going on her school or what’s going on home, which could be making this child her headaches. Emma Howard: Su, thank you very much for that. If you have a similar problem, we hope we might have given you some help. But remember, it’s always best to go and see your own doctor for medical advice. Thanks for watching, we’ll be back with more health questions and answers.