12 year old missing days and days of school for migraines

[Gastropod]

Hello,
My 12 year old daughter has been suffering from migraines for a couple of years (and probably longer, though we hadn't recognised it as such). They are becoming so frequent that she is missing several days of school every month (where I live, not UK, schools are still teaching on a rotating online/on-site basis).

We have managed to have her seen by the neuro-paediatrics team at the local hospital, but they are currently in the "observation" phase, next appointment is far away, and the whole process is incredibly slow. (Understandably, as they are oversubscribed, high demand for appointments).

It's really ruining her quality of life as these migraines are so unpredictable (I guess that's the nature of the beast).

She is missing out on important school work (and also activities that she enjoys) and is beginning to show signs of struggling to keep up, despite having always done well at school until now. She's just unable to study until the migraines have passed, and then she gets very stressed and upset trying to work out all the things she's missed. School is not especialy helpful with this.

She's been given riboflavin to take regularly, and she takes magnesium, both of which help up to a point. Painkillers seem to be of limited use. Sleep, hydration, etc. also play a part. But I'm just as a loss as to how to support her through this, or whether there is hope for her to reduce the frequency and intensity of the episodes.

It must be so horrible for her... I just wish there was something I could do.

Any advice or experience here would be very much appreciated.

It sounds like you’re doing all the right things by getting her support and I’m sorry it’s taking so long. I now take daily preventative tablets plus strong painkillers for each attack (not sure how feasible this is for a child, but just to reassure you there are solutions out there). I think all you can do for now is be on top of medical appointments and chase if they’re slow to get back to you, and look into lifestyle factors and support her with sleep
/ diet / stress management etc. I personally find a warm wheat bag on the back of my neck and a cold stick-on patch on my forehead helps, it’s different for everyone but you might find things that soothe her by trial and error. Poor DD

I'm not sure I have too much wisdom for you unfortunately, but I'll share our experience in case any if it helps.

Our daughter has had 'silent' migraines since she was 9, now 12, and unfortunately like your daughter has missed too much school time.
We suspect she has ADD and feel strongly that Melatonin will help her sleep better but it seems to be a battle getting taken seriously with ADD in girls here. We are in an ongoing process.

Two things that have helped us are getting a Irlen assesment for light sensitivity. Since she's worn her Irlen filters, her headaches hugely reduced, to almost only 1 or 2 a year, but once puberty kicked in they're back to being much more frequent.
I've also recently taken her to a behavioural optometrist who says her convergence is weak, so we are doing daily exercises with her to train her eyes.

The second thing is when a headache starts, first twinge, I no longer pussy foot around with whether to give her Sumatripan, I just give it to her straight away. That seems to stop her from throwing it back up at least.

Really sorry you also have a child going through this.

Does she take a preventative? My son gets abdominal migraines, and takes pizotifen. He was having days off school and since then he’s had one tiny minor breakthrough migraine. I was very anti medicating him every eve but the difference has been incredible.

Hi all,
Thanks for your kindness and words of wisdom, and to all those with children going through similar.

She's not taking a preventative yet, as the doctor said that would be next stage but first they need more info on the frequency, triggers etc. I'm not at all anti-medication if it works, so I really hope this will be something we can try as soon as we have the next appointment.

Sleep is definitely a factor and I do actually have melatonin here from a trip abroad (remember those?!). I hadn't thought about trying that.

I didn't know about light sensitivity, though we do need to get her eyes checked again (she wears glasses for reading, but last check was 2 years ago). Is that assessment something that the ophthalmologist can do?

Seems like many optioins but also a lot of trial and error, I guess.

Migraines are awful, my dd started with migraines when she was. 8, she is 11 now.
When she has one, she crys with the pain, her sight goes funny, she can't see but sees some sort of flashing, her hands go numb, she vomits with them and normally ends up sleeping for hours.
When dd first started having migraines, they where very frequent and she was having them weekly.
She still has them now but thankfully a lot less frequent.
She was 10 when she started her periods and I am convinced the start of her migraines and how very frequent they where was due to the start of puberty and a surge in hormones.
Could your dd be going through puberty at the moment making them worse.
If her medication isn't working ask if there is different one she can try - hope they settle for her soon x

Thanks and yes, definitely puberty/hormones seem to be a factor. I really do hope they'll settle down a bit.

I was a bit worried about pizotifen coz of the side effects. But he hasn’t actually suffered any. And the migraines were so debilitating. It’s been such a relief not to have them anymore. Just need to figure out coming off the meds and hope they don’t come back.

My ds missed a lot of school in year 6, 7 and 8 with migraines.(especially as they would make him vomit) By year 9 they were much better and now year 10 he has not had one. He seems to have grown out of them, rather than finding any effective treatment. I hope time helps your daughter if nothing else does.

It's really all about that isn't it, the hope that we'll find a bit of relief from it all.

I hope she does grow out of them even a bit. We had the vomiting too, though that seems to have reduced and been replaced by the full blown headaches.

My son's both suffered with frequent migraines during puberty, our GP diagnosed Cluster migraines which are linked to hormonal changes. The symptoms always followed the same pattern - headache, blurred vision, vomiting then immediate need for sleep.
They weren't prescribed anything as after sleeping they needed paracetamol only.