abdominal migraine and over excitement

[Betty5313]

our dd, 3, has abdominal migraine. Some of her triggers are dietary which we can try to control but the worst is low blood sugar and overexcitement. does anyone else find this and how do you deal with it? a particular problem is one set of grandparents winding her up and getting her giddy, they live away so don't see the aftermath.

Ds1 has cyclical vomiting syndrome (which I understand is similar). His is definitely brought on by stress and fear (eg. worried about first sports day at school, fear after v minor swimming pool accident). We also used to make sure he didn't become over-tired when he was younger although this is less of an issue now as his episodes are less frequent (diagnosed aged 4, now 8).

yes, over tiredness is a problem too! she finds it v difficult to switch off, I'm wondering whether teaching her some relaxation techniques as she gets older would be a good idea?

Ds finds it really hard to get to sleep, he reads for ages and then it's over an hour before he falls asleep but I figure that at least he's relaxing. I can see in his face when he's gone too far - dark sunken eyes - and then we just cut back on activities and have a few afternoons just lazing around, watching tv.

We have found attacks have lessened as he has got older but I think that is mostly because we recognise the triggers more and work around them.

The other thing we have found is that if he catches a simple bug like a cold his body seems to think it has to go into cvs mode and an episode will invariably follow. We are currently trying to persuade him he can control this, that he is in charge and can stop such an episode occurring. May sound corny but we'll do anything if it helps!

Nicnock DS1 had CVS. He had symptoms from about 4, but we were dismissed as neurotic parents. We moved house and areas and he was diagnosed at around 7, it was such a relief to know what he had.

He is 18 now and his symptoms were exactly the same as your DS's, but unfortunately he now suffers with migraines, which we were told was very likely to follow theCVS. In his early teens he had really frequent ones and had to take beta blockers to prevent them, but now he gets 3 or 4 a year. He still has problems getting to sleep. He drinks lots and lots of water, which I think helps and has regular snacks to keep his blood sugar levels up.

Landof - we were lucky with ds' diagnosis. A fellow mnetter pointed me in that direction, I discussed with my gp, she took me seriously and we were referred to a consultant straight away. The frustration of not knowing why your child suffers frequent and extreme bouts of vomiting must have been terrible.

I am worried that ds' cvs might evolve to migraines - particularly as each cvs episode starts with what he calls a cvs headache - but I guess that's just a waiting game for us for now.

Did/does your ds also suffer from travel sickness? It is a big issue for us and all trips/holidays have to be planned around it.