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How to spot the symptoms of migraine in kids – CTV News Montreal

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7 months ago

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Before adulthood, 60 per cent of kids will experience headaches, and one in 10 children will suffer from migraine, according to Dr. Serena Orr, a pediatric neurologist at the Alberta Children’s Hospital in Calgary.

“[It] is a neurological diagnosis where children and adolescents can get severe recurrent headaches with other symptoms like sensitivity to light or sound, nausea, vomiting,” she explains. “It’s actually more common than most people realize.”

Orr notes that the genetic neurological disease becomes more common once children hit puberty.

“Some studies say as high as 20 per cent of older adolescents can have migraine,” she tells CTV News. “I’ve diagnosed as young as two or three [years old] in some rare cases. So, it can start very early.”

By adulthood, migraine will impact one in seven people in the world, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

What are the symptoms?

According to Orr, in very young children, migraine can often be associated with two things:

  • Torticollis, a stiff neck that makes it hard or painful to turn their head, sometimes as a result of childbirth, and
  • Infant colic, often described as an intense crying for three or more hours a day, three or more days a week, for three or more weeks.

Repeated episodes of vertigo and dizziness “can eventually develop into migraine,” she said. “A lot of younger kids actually will present with what we call abdominal migraine. So, that’s where the pain, rather than being in the head, is more around the tummy.”

As children age, she says, “the way the headache is expressed can change.”

“In younger children, we often see that the pain is in the front of the head or at the side of the head, but on both sides,” Orr said. “Whereas, when we think of migraine in adults or older adolescents, we know that often the pain is on one side, and so, as their brain develops, we see that pain becoming more one-sided.”

Sometimes, she says older children can present with migraine aura, which looks similar to a stroke.

“Vision changes, losing sensation to half of the body, having trouble with speech,” Orr lists.

She says some of the signs that a migraine is on the way include mood change, fatigue and sensitivity to light or sound.

“There can also be visual changes that the parents notice in their kids,” Orr notes. “They’ll say, ‘my child’s face looks pale,’ or, ‘their eyes look sunken,’ or they just seem kind of off.”

She says children will often hold their heads or retreat to a quiet, dark place.

“Sometimes, they’ll bury their head into their mom or dad or pull covers over their head,” she adds, noting that 75 per cent of children diagnosed with migraine have a family member who also suffers from the disease. “Certainly, in younger kids, we have more of a tendency to do tests to look for other things, and we look for other clues in the family history because migraine is very genetic.”

How do you treat it?

Orr says one important thing parents can do is educate themselves: learn what migraine is and what lifestyle behaviours can contribute to it.

“The way I see it is, people who have migraine, their brain is more sensitive to all incoming sensory information and doesn’t like changes in the environment or internally,” she explains. “It’s more an accumulation of changes internally or externally that can tip a person over.”

Some things you can do to help your child reduce their risk is making sure they have regular, good quality sleep and meals.

“There are actually a few studies now…that has shown that having regular meals, possibly even more so if it’s with the family, may decrease the risk of having more frequent headaches,” she points out. “We look at hydration and stress-coping skills as well.”

In addition, Orr says medical options, including medications, are available to stop an attack.

She notes parents who suspect their child may be suffering from migraine should contact their primary care physician.

“We’re certainly trying and working with a national group of headache specialists to educate, more broadly, the doctors about this problem,” she said. “One thing that you can do as a parent to advocate for your child [is] to learn about the disease.”

To find out more about migraine in children or for a list of resources, visit Migraine Canada’s pediatrics page.

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How many Nova Scotians are on the doctor wait-list? Number hit 160,000 in June

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1 day ago

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September 11, 2024

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HALIFAX – The Nova Scotia government says it could be months before it reveals how many people are on the wait-list for a family doctor.

The head of the province’s health authority told reporters Wednesday that the government won’t release updated data until the 160,000 people who were on the wait-list in June are contacted to verify whether they still need primary care.

Karen Oldfield said Nova Scotia Health is working on validating the primary care wait-list data before posting new numbers, and that work may take a matter of months. The most recent public wait-list figures are from June 1, when 160,234 people, or about 16 per cent of the population, were on it.

“It’s going to take time to make 160,000 calls,” Oldfield said. “We are not talking weeks, we are talking months.”

The interim CEO and president of Nova Scotia Health said people on the list are being asked where they live, whether they still need a family doctor, and to give an update on their health.

A spokesperson with the province’s Health Department says the government and its health authority are “working hard” to turn the wait-list registry into a useful tool, adding that the data will be shared once it is validated.

Nova Scotia’s NDP are calling on Premier Tim Houston to immediately release statistics on how many people are looking for a family doctor. On Tuesday, the NDP introduced a bill that would require the health minister to make the number public every month.

“It is unacceptable for the list to be more than three months out of date,” NDP Leader Claudia Chender said Tuesday.

Chender said releasing this data regularly is vital so Nova Scotians can track the government’s progress on its main 2021 campaign promise: fixing health care.

The number of people in need of a family doctor has more than doubled between the 2021 summer election campaign and June 2024. Since September 2021 about 300 doctors have been added to the provincial health system, the Health Department said.

“We’ll know if Tim Houston is keeping his 2021 election promise to fix health care when Nova Scotians are attached to primary care,” Chender said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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Newfoundland and Labrador monitoring rise in whooping cough cases: medical officer

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2 days ago

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September 10, 2024

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ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Newfoundland and Labrador‘s chief medical officer is monitoring the rise of whooping cough infections across the province as cases of the highly contagious disease continue to grow across Canada.

Dr. Janice Fitzgerald says that so far this year, the province has recorded 230 confirmed cases of the vaccine-preventable respiratory tract infection, also known as pertussis.

Late last month, Quebec reported more than 11,000 cases during the same time period, while Ontario counted 470 cases, well above the five-year average of 98. In Quebec, the majority of patients are between the ages of 10 and 14.

Meanwhile, New Brunswick has declared a whooping cough outbreak across the province. A total of 141 cases were reported by last month, exceeding the five-year average of 34.

The disease can lead to severe complications among vulnerable populations including infants, who are at the highest risk of suffering from complications like pneumonia and seizures. Symptoms may start with a runny nose, mild fever and cough, then progress to severe coughing accompanied by a distinctive “whooping” sound during inhalation.

“The public, especially pregnant people and those in close contact with infants, are encouraged to be aware of symptoms related to pertussis and to ensure vaccinations are up to date,” Newfoundland and Labrador’s Health Department said in a statement.

Whooping cough can be treated with antibiotics, but vaccination is the most effective way to control the spread of the disease. As a result, the province has expanded immunization efforts this school year. While booster doses are already offered in Grade 9, the vaccine is now being offered to Grade 8 students as well.

Public health officials say whooping cough is a cyclical disease that increases every two to five or six years.

Meanwhile, New Brunswick’s acting chief medical officer of health expects the current case count to get worse before tapering off.

A rise in whooping cough cases has also been reported in the United States and elsewhere. The Pan American Health Organization issued an alert in July encouraging countries to ramp up their surveillance and vaccination coverage.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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Bizarre Sunlight Loophole Melts Belly Fat Fast!

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3 days ago

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September 10, 2024

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