Recent News and Articles on the Keywords: headaches + headache + causing  Related to the article below (Last Update: 8/5/2008)

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What is causing my son's headaches?

 It is unusual for a child of this age to complain of headaches every day and in particular to be able to locate the headache to the top of his head. I agree that you should take this seriously and take him to your GP if you have not already done so as he may need referral to a paediatrician.

Without seeing your son myself and knowing more of the story it is hard to tell you what the exact cause could be but the doctors may consider some of the following:

The commonest cause for recurrent headaches at this age is an infection of some type. It might be a virus which is affecting his body as a whole but giving him headaches as part of the picture. He may have a bacterial infection causing more of an identifiable illness such as a chest, ear, throat or urine infection which your GP might be able to pick up on examining him or testing his urine. Just as in adults such infections can cause headaches as part of a general illness.

Less commonly the infection can be located more in the head such as with meningitis (affecting the membranes around the brain) or encephalitis (causing an inflammation of the brain itself). In these cases your son would have an acute illness perhaps with vomiting and fever, perhaps a stiff neck or rash. From what you say it sounds as though his headaches are persistent but not tied up with a severe illness or vomiting making these causes less likely.

Migraine can start even at this age and whilst classically affecting one side and often affecting vision or causing nausea or sickness young children can show different symptoms. It is more likely if migraine runs in your family and sometimes improves if you exclude certain foods such as caffeine (found in Coca-Cola and chocolate), cheese or citrus fruits from his diet. It is worth keeping a headache diary for a couple of weeks first. Then exclude one food type at a time for a period of two to four weeks and see if it makes a difference to the headaches. If there is no difference restart the food type and go on to exclude the next.

A rare but important treatable cause of persistent headache at any age is high blood pressure. In children of this age it may be a result of heart disease or kidney failure. Your GP or paediatrician needs to check his blood pressure, examine his heart and urine to exclude these problems.

Another rare cause but one which parents always think of first is a brain tumour. The headache is a result of raised pressure inside the skull which may also lead to vomiting or nausea or which may just show itself as a poor appetite. It can raise blood pressure which is a useful clue. Sometimes the child's nervous system may be affected producing, for example, problems with walking or balance, eyesight (eg a squint), speech or his ability to learn. If the paediatrician feels it is appropriate he may arrange a scan of his brain to exclude a tumour or other abnormality as a skull X ray is of limited help in looking at his brain.