Sorry if the negative in the title makes it confusing, but that’s the way I remember it – I didn’t get headaches until I was a well into a pre-teen. I might have just been lucky, and many people have had their 2 to 4 year old say, “Moooooommmmm … My 'ed 'urts”, and something had to be done. Just not for me. We’re not quite in MPSIMS yet, I think, unless my experiences are very atypical. So what’s the straight dope?
And if small children don’t get headaches, what can I do, to emulate this condition? Don’t say sleep like they do, because oversleeping gives me headaches. Is it their simpler lifestyle? More running and jumping and playing? Just an artifact that their heads are still growing and blood vessels and muscles never get tense as a result? Do I need a supply of child encephalitic fluid? And where can I get some legally?
This might be caffeine withdrawal. (That, and/or dehydration.) I didn’t get caffeine-withdrawal headaches when I was a kid because I didn’t like coffee, tea, or cola (and lived in a less soft-drink-satiurated environment than is typical nowadays), so I consumed very little caffeine.
Kids do get headaches, but they don’t seem to get them as much as adults. I don’t think anyone really knows why.
What they get *more *of though, is stomachaches, both of the bacterial/viral type and the general “my tummy hurts” type.
Some of it may be differences in somatization, 'though again, I don’t think we know *why *this is so. Kids tend to somatize stress into their bellies. Adults tend to somatize stress into their heads and backs.
Migraines are relatively common in children.
Other causes of headache (meningitis; tumors; elevated intracranial pressure, eye problems and the like) also present in children.
I had headaches far more often as a kid than I do today. As in, once every few months vs. gee, I can’t remember the last one I had, a year or two ago maybe? Which is good, as while they weren’t migraines, I remember a couple of whoppers I had and would hate to have to deal with them nowadays.
My son was very prone to headaches and migraines. We figured it out around kindergarten. He’s outgrown them mostly, now at 16, but will still get them.
My middle daughter EtherealFreakOfPinkness started getting migraines before she was verbal! Now, I’ll grant you she didn’t start to speak clearly til after she was 3YO, but even prior to that, she would start screaming (apparently in pain), vomit uncontrollably, then fall asleep.
Once she was old enough to talk, we (her father, the doctor and I) diagnosed migraines and got her some meds.
I had tons when I was in elementary school, always in the afternoons, always after lunch. My friend had the same thing. The problem was caused by dehydration brought on by play during recess. I drank more water during the day (I had to force myself to do it between particular classes) and the headaches went away.
The only time I got headaches when I was a kid was once or twice when I had a fever. I sure didn’t get tension headaches. I was a nervous kid, but most of the stress seemed to hit me in the stomach. I never got sinus headaches, either, though I’ve had both as an adult. And my kids had sinus infections when they were little.
Interesting question! I’m not sure there is an answer, though, other than that maybe our wiring changes as we mature.
I got very bad headaches when I was a child. They may have been migraines; I don’t remember if they were on one side of my head, but they were definitely accompanied by nausea. They may have been related to my very poor vision. They cleared up when I was about 10, and then I started getting migraines when I was in my mid-20s.
My six year old boy is experiencing either severe sinus infection caused headaches or migraines. We are working with a doctor to determine which.
There is no reason why kids would not get headaches of one type or another. Probably under a certain age they don’t know how to express the pain they are feeling or remember it when they are old enough to connect it as being a headache. One problem is that when we say headache we are being as specific as when we say we have a cold. There are many types of headaches, you just have to figure out if there is some sort of common cause for your headaches.
Lower stress levels of being a kid, maybe? I get plenty of stress-induced headaches as an adult (ever since I became conscious of the existence of social norms at age 11ish, basically). As a little kid I was mostly carefree and playing outside or reading or having fun.