Headaches in children at the age of 10

Headaches in children at the age of 10: causes, symptoms, what to do in this case.

Often a 10 years old child suffers from a headache or dizziness. Most parents think the baby is tired or caught a cold. But this may be one of the symptoms of autonomic dysfunction syndrome (ADS). Let’s consider why a 10 years old child may suffer from a headache.

Your child is 10-12 years old and he/she often suffers from a headache? This is not a childish whim or fiction as many parents may think. Headache in a child may indicate various disorders or serious illnesses.

The headache nature

Often pain in the head leads to changes of blood pressure or even liquor failure. The skull is a completely closed system. Spinal cord comes into the hole in its base. Scull is filled with three components: brain (80%), blood (10%) and liquor (10%). All of them largely consist of water and that’s why are not compressed. In the case when pressure increases in one or the other structures, it immediately provokes and causes pain in neighboring ones.

The brain consists of neurons and their appendices, but doesn’t have any painful receptors. The brain shell is abundantly filled with receptor fields, which is a brain protective system. As soon as in any of brain tissues the pressure (of any nature) increases, the receptor fields immediately signal pain in the head.

Very often, doctors who have patients with headache complaints do not pay attention to the condition of the cervical spine. Blood pressure and liquor are often associated with protrusions, hernias of intervertebral discs, instability in the cervical spine.

Why a 10 years old child may suffer from a headache?

15% of most people face headaches yet in childhood. Therefore, it is important to make an appointment with a specialist with the appearance of the first  complains, and determine the headache cause, since the neglected case can become a chronic disease and cause a lot of trouble for a person throughout his/her life.

In the early adolescence, the child’s body begins to rebuild and still remains infantile brittle. Every second student occasionally faces headaches, but most prefer not to do anything to get rid of it. The pain affects their academics and psychological health, impeding healthy interaction in various spheres of life.

The child’s headaches causes may have different origins.

There distinguish:

1. Primary Headaches

• Cluster headache. There are series of several attacks per day during several weeks and even months. Then the pain suddenly passes and may not bother for several months or even years. Duration of attack lasts from 15 minutes to one hour. It is characterized by acute pain around and behind the eye, a feeling of niceness in the ear, eyes may blur, tearing begins. Such pains are often seasonal in nature. Cluster pain is subjected to circadian rhythms (biological clock) that are controlled by the hypothalamus. Therefore, the breakdown of the body’s biological clock, climate change, time zone changes, sleep disorders and wakefulness, fatigue, stress, and hormonal disorders can cause cluster pain.
• Migraine. Usually manifests itself as a pulsating headache in one part of the head and is accompanied by vomiting and nausea. The reasons for it are either hereditary (inherited from the mother) or are hidden in an unhealthy diet.
• Stress Headache. It’s aching, dull, monotonous, squeezing, compressing pain. Often the pain captures both sides of the head, but it may also be one-sided. It may appear in certain areas (frontal, parietal, occipital), can migrate from one part of the head to another, begin at one point and “spill” all over the head. The pain may be localized only in the head area, but often extends over the neck and shoulder belt.
• NEURALGIES. With such pathology the pain has, as a rule, an attack-like nature: a sharp, reminding the stroke of lightening, which is repeated after a certain time. Typically, neuralgia can be caused by infection, diseases of the cervical vertebrae, as well as inflammation of the trigeminal nerve.

2. Symptomatic Headaches

the reasons for which may be:

• Tumors;
• Craniocerebral injury;
• Contagious diseases (meningitis, encephalitis).

Due to the fact that headaches, as you see, can be a symptom of life-threatening diseases, the emergence of a sharp headache requires an urgent consultation of the neurologist, if necessary – hospitalization in the neurological department for accurate diagnosing and further treatment.

Also, the causes of symptomatic headache may be:

CERVICAL SPINE DESEASES IN CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS, such as functional instability, early degenerative-dystrophic spine changes, vertebrae and cervical spine vessels deformities;

ENT-organs diseases, ENDOCRINE PATHOLOGY;

AUTONOMIC DYSFUNCTIONS (AD) are the most common diseases among adolescents.

The autonomic nervous system performs important functions to preserve and maintain the constancy of the internal body environment. Violation of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) is manifested in autonomic dysfunctions, which lead to a “failure” in the work of internal organs and body systems. Common symptoms are hyperirritability, anxiety, restlessness, tiredness, reduced working capacity, constant inner tension, bad mood, tearfulness, sleep and appetite disorders, various fears.

Clinico-pathogenetically autonomic dysfunctions are presented:

• Neurocirculatory dystonia (angiodystonia – primarily cerebral vessels), which manifests itself as permanent headache, dizziness, psychoemotional instability, anxiety, tiredness.
• VVD (vegetative-vascular dysfunction) is manifested by complaints mainly from the cardiovascular system (arterial hypertension or hypotension, cardialgia (mock angina), heart rhythm disorders, myocardial contractility dysfunction syndrome, dyspnoea …), and frequent headaches.
• Vegetative-visceral dysfunctions are manifested primarily by disorders of the internal organs (nausea, abdominal pain, biliary dysfunction, restosternal pain, tachycardia, tendency to corpulense, low-grade fever, palm and foot hyperhydrosis, skin erythema, urinary frequency, weather sensytivity, headache, drowsiness).
• Paroxysmal autonomic deficiency (PAD) – manifests itself in vegetative crises, often with “panic attacks”, headaches.

Thus, the causes of primary headaches in children are:

• Mental stress;
• Hormonal body alteration;
• Moving to another country, changing the habitual climate.
• Significant physical, mental and mental stress.
• Acute exacerbation of a chronic disease.
• Neurotic disorders.

Also parents should remember about the stage of an awkward age which usually happens  by the age of 11, so there are frequent cases of psychogenic headache (psihalgia) against the background of emotional stress or problems. Parents should pay more attention to their child’s feelings, do not overload with physical or mental duties, let their child realized that they love and need him/her. Quite often hormonal fluctuations occur in girls before the periods, which begin at the age of 11-16. Girls suffer vegetative disorders about 3 times ofter than boys do.

Do not hesitate to contact a neurologist if you notice headaches, frequent dizziness, sleep disorders, tiredness. Serious health problems may develop even against the background of the initial, weak appearance.

In “Bersenev’s Medical Center” children suffering from frequent headaches and dizziness are assigned a full cervical spine examination additionally to a standard examination, in order to determine the effect of spine pathology and myofascial dysfunctions on a particular vascular pool and its control apparatus (i.e., on the autonomic structure). Outpatient treatment sessions in this case include neurometameric reflexotherapy with metameric drugs injections into the reflexogenic zones, as well as metameric acupressure. An individual home treatment program is prepared for each patient.

You can make an appointment for a consultation with a pediatric neurologist by calling the contact center (044) 238-22-31 or by calling the children’s department (044) 272-11-82.

Following the doctor’s recommendations and having completed a full course of treatment by metameric method, you will help your child to get rid of frequent headaches and autonomic nervous system dysfunctions.