As a pediatric neurologist with a busy outpatient practice, children suffering from headaches make up about a third of my office visits. Recurrent headaches can be disabling for children. Headaches are the third most common cause of school absenteeism and often result in limitation of extracurricular/sports activities. Migraine is the most common primary headache syndrome. A comprehensive program to treat migraines may include lifestyle changes with trigger identification and avoidance, medications, complementary and alternative medicine treatments, and strong family/mental health support.

Generally by the time families end up in my office, some effort at lifestyle changes with headache trigger identification and avoidance strategies have been attempted. When families come to see me, I always spend some time educating them and reinforcing adequate lifestyle changes before launching into a discussion of pharmacotherapy. I put together some valuable resources for families including common headache triggers/food triggers and a headache diary available on our website at http://www.mcintoshneurology.com/

We are fortunate to live in an era with many treatment options for children suffering from migraines. I wrote a brief article outlining different classes of migraine treatment options from basic symptomatic pain relief to daily preventative medications available at http://www.mcintoshneurology.com/blog/

If you have any questions or would like information about scheduling an appointment with Dr. McIntosh you may contact his office at (949) 249-3780.