Headaches in 10 year old

[1willgetthere]

My son started getting headaches around May time, he had a blood test early July that showed he had low Iron and he has been taking Iron prescribed by GP since August (He takes Vit C at the same time and no calcium around the time to help absorption).

He started complaining of headaches again early October, GP has referred to his Paediatrician (He had ASD and ADHD), but that could take months.
GP said to take Calpol when needed, but school wont so I have to go in, but they sometimes don't phone me as they think he is putting it on but then he feels they don't listen or care and his behaviour deteriorates, so it is causing a lot of distress.

He sometimes gets nose bleeds but don't think they are connected.

Has anyone got any words of advice for me?

Is he sleeping ok? This for me is a trigger

He does struggle to get to sleep at night (pead has been holding off putting him on melatonin (not sure why, does anyone know? ) but he has been getting better at getting up in the morning since being on Iron. So I would say he doesn't get the recommended 9:30 hours for his age.

I was thinking of doing a headache chart to monitor his headache levels (1-10) as he says it is always there but at times worse than others, so have something to show the pead when we see him and can see if there are any patterns. Do you think this is a good idea and is it reasonable to ask school (he has a 1 to 1) to help complete this in school hours?

Ask for the melatonin as that would help, my son is 11 and takes this start low dose then see how you get on. It’s hard re school as if my son knew he could sat he had a headache and I’d come in he’d absolutely use that but will school not give prescribed meds? It’s managing everything which is difficult when you throw in Asd/adhd too.

my older son (12) has had migraine for years and was on sumatriptan now on propanalol for his headaches, they are so debilitating it’s horrible that he’s potentially ignored so school need to find a strategy to deal with this, seperate room with lights off for a while of quiet time to see how he is trying to distract him etc. usually my son would go pale and be very quiet.
I hope you find something that works for him op it’s so difficult

Might be obvious but has anyone checked his eyes? Poor eyesight can cause headaches

And yep get eyes tested - older son has glasses now and still has his migraines,
also do the headache diary, what he was doing before the headache, how severe and what helped also

Does he uses screens? If so turn the brightness way down. I get horrendous headaches when my phone is too bright.

DS gets headaches when he doesn't drink enough.

Yes to an eye test.

Hope you find a solution soon.

Eye test first then

Sleep
Water
Ibuprofen

This is what helps DS.

Thank you for the replies. He does have glasses and had a recent eye test and he drinks loads so it's not dehydration but good suggestions. I will look at turning the screen light down on his computer, thanks.

School wont give calpol, their policy is only to give prescribed medication that is needed 4 or more times a day.

I will speak to school again as serenghetti2011 and school say, it is possible he is exaggerating to get to see me in school hours, but school wont give it him so call me which isn't helpful if its to see me.

I will also speak to school about a headache diary. the ask doc about other meds when we get an appointment through.