Child migraines on the rise in Indian metros

03 Sep 2013 (TOI): Irregular lifestyle, gadget addiction and obesity are causing migraines in kids as young as three.

The next time you feel like pampering your tot by allowing him or her to have a late Saturday night or to indulge in a ’midnight buffet’, watch out! You could be pushing him/her onto the path of disability. Chances are repeated patterns of irregular sleep and poor diet among other factors will bring about a migraine attack in a child. Unfortunately, it is largely viewed as an adult condition and ignored. But migraine - which reportedly ranks in the top 20 of the world’s most disabling medical illnesses — is increasingly attacking younger kids, which can lead to an adverse outcome, warn experts...

No child’s play

Unfortunately, migraines in kids are most often overlooked. "It is often diagnosed last, after all organic causes are excluded and is invisible misery, which is suffered for long before any solution is found," says Dr Nikhil Nasta, Mumbai-based consultant cataract and refractive surgeon. "The condition is triggered with sinusitis or common cold also. Most common child migraines occur while kids are at school. Due to this, the child may miss school or fall back in grades, feel isolated or ostracised and this could increase the frequency of the headaches." He cautions, "If a child has recurrent headaches, visit a specialist at the earliest."

Gadgets, a major culprit

"Yes, there is a rising trend of migraine in children," reveals internal medicine consultant, Dr Amit Saraf. "In recent times, physicians are seeing a steady rise in the number of children (from age group of even 3 to 14 and above), suffering from it. The commonest reasons for such a trend is long hours — with close viewing — of gadgets such as tablets, mobiles and computers, which leads to eye problems like myopia and in turn causes migraine. Add to that less and disturbed sleep, which aggravates the migraine attacks." He pegs this down to an increased competitive environment in school/college and too much indoor recreational activity." "Let’s face it, city kids don’t get out in the fresh air enough, they play no sports and it causes conditions such as hypertension, obesity etc, which can also cause and aggravate migraine."

Top 5 triggers:

 1. Lack of sleep. On an average a child needs up to six-seven hours of undisturbed sleep at night.

 2. Excessive television viewing.

 3. Visual display units (VDUs)—smartphones, gaming consoles, tablets and computer screens — prolonged use of these may trigger migraines.

 4. Cheese, aerated drinks, pastas contain monoamine oxidase, known to trigger migraine.

 5. Starving or binge dieting triggers hypoglycemia and induces headaches.

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