Children with severe or chronic daily headaches are a serious concern to parents, educators and to the medical profession. Lack of proper diagnosis can negatively affect children for the rest of their lives.
An acute first-time headache must always be taken very seriously as serious medical conditions must ruled out. This may involve CAT Scans, MRI's as well as trips to the ER, ENT or pediatric neurologists. It is important to rule out serious organic disease. It is also important to avoid excessive diagnostic procedures that carry risks.
Fortunately most childhood and adolescent headaches are benign in terms of serious medical concerns but devastating to the quality of life at this important period of children's lives.
Pediatricians frequently treat the headaches as primary headaches because they do not have training or understanding of the Trigemeninal nervous system and the interactions of Myofascial Pain and Dysfunction, airway, especially the Nasopharyngeal airway and tongue position.
Pediatric snoring may be a key diagnostic flag of nasopharyngeal respiratory issues that include sleep apnea and morning headaches. Sleep apnea in children may be responsible not just for headaches but also for behavioral disorders like ADD, ADHD and ODD or Attention Deficit Disorder, Attentional Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, and Oppositional Defiant Disorder.
These children often display adenoid facies (allergy faces) including issues with mouth breathing, deviate swallows, dark circles under their eyes as well as other signs and symptoms.
All children with chronic headaches should be evaluated for neuromuscular structural issues that could be the underlying cause of their headaches.
A study described in NasoRespiratory Disorders published by University of Michigan and edited by McNamarra compared children with Allergy faces and genius level IQ's to children with "pretty faces" and average IQ's In this disturbing study teachers described the genius level children with allergy symptoms as slow learners, troublesome and other negative adjectives while the "pretty faced" children were described as smart, helpful and intelligent. Children respon to these adult attitudes of them.
My personal experience with my son who had symptoms of sleep apnea including poor disturbed sleep, night-time sweating and hyperactivity which were brought to the attention of his pediatricians from the time he was 3 years old and were dismissed. At five years old he was evaluated prior to starting kidergarden and we were informed he had ADD, ADHD and could not start kindergarden and would need to be on Ritalin for life.
This plan was rejected by my wife and I and we took Billy to Rush Medical School and Rosalind Cartwright Phd and went through a sleep study. He had an Apnea Index of 60 or woke every minute. He had tonsils and adenoids removed and his mouth was widened orthopedically / orthodontically as well as correcting a tongue and lip tie. This same child who could not start kindergarden and "needed" Ritalin graduated college double major/ double minor Magna Cum Laude, he never took Ritalin, his drug of choice was oxygen from being able to breathe normally, he needed to breathe and have high quality sleep.
He also went from a 50% to a 90% on the growth curve and went from being short and chubby to stretched out slim body type. His behavior was remarkable improved. He never complained of headaches but was often angry, his anger also disappeared.
I treat adult patients for chronic headaches,sleep disorders, facial pain and migraines related to jaw position, disrupted nasopharyngeal airway and MPD and TMJ disorders. These patients did not just happen but developed into adults with these issues from childhood.
Robert Corrucini has shown in his landmark book "How Anthropology Informs the Orthodontic Diagnosis of Malocclusion's Causes" that the development of the human face and jaws has been subjected to negative epigenetic changes over the last 400 years. This is due to pollution, allergies, decrease in breast feeding and introducton of soft mushy diets that prevent proper development of jaws, jaw muscles, jaw joints and effects breathing and posture.
Dr Gozal at University of Chicago has shown that these problems should be ideally corrected before the age of 8 years old. Most dentists do not assess or address airway issues related to jaw and tongue position in patients at this crucial period of their lives.
Chronic headaches in children can lead to long-term consequences that last a lifetime.
I have lectured on the common developmental aspects of Sleep Apnea and TMJ disorders both in the US and in Buenos Aires, Argentina on how these development changes occur. These are preventable disporders!
Suffer no more discusses headaches in adults but these childhood issues predispose adults to chronic pain issues.
https://www.sleepandhealth.com/suffer-no-more-dealing-great-impostor/
These patient videos are of adults but many started their headache issues as children. While they can be treated at any time, the earlier the better.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCk9Bfz6pklC7_UluWFHzLrg/videos
An acute first-time headache must always be taken very seriously as serious medical conditions must ruled out. This may involve CAT Scans, MRI's as well as trips to the ER, ENT or pediatric neurologists. It is important to rule out serious organic disease. It is also important to avoid excessive diagnostic procedures that carry risks.
Fortunately most childhood and adolescent headaches are benign in terms of serious medical concerns but devastating to the quality of life at this important period of children's lives.
Pediatricians frequently treat the headaches as primary headaches because they do not have training or understanding of the Trigemeninal nervous system and the interactions of Myofascial Pain and Dysfunction, airway, especially the Nasopharyngeal airway and tongue position.
Pediatric snoring may be a key diagnostic flag of nasopharyngeal respiratory issues that include sleep apnea and morning headaches. Sleep apnea in children may be responsible not just for headaches but also for behavioral disorders like ADD, ADHD and ODD or Attention Deficit Disorder, Attentional Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, and Oppositional Defiant Disorder.
These children often display adenoid facies (allergy faces) including issues with mouth breathing, deviate swallows, dark circles under their eyes as well as other signs and symptoms.
All children with chronic headaches should be evaluated for neuromuscular structural issues that could be the underlying cause of their headaches.
A study described in NasoRespiratory Disorders published by University of Michigan and edited by McNamarra compared children with Allergy faces and genius level IQ's to children with "pretty faces" and average IQ's In this disturbing study teachers described the genius level children with allergy symptoms as slow learners, troublesome and other negative adjectives while the "pretty faced" children were described as smart, helpful and intelligent. Children respon to these adult attitudes of them.
My personal experience with my son who had symptoms of sleep apnea including poor disturbed sleep, night-time sweating and hyperactivity which were brought to the attention of his pediatricians from the time he was 3 years old and were dismissed. At five years old he was evaluated prior to starting kidergarden and we were informed he had ADD, ADHD and could not start kindergarden and would need to be on Ritalin for life.
This plan was rejected by my wife and I and we took Billy to Rush Medical School and Rosalind Cartwright Phd and went through a sleep study. He had an Apnea Index of 60 or woke every minute. He had tonsils and adenoids removed and his mouth was widened orthopedically / orthodontically as well as correcting a tongue and lip tie. This same child who could not start kindergarden and "needed" Ritalin graduated college double major/ double minor Magna Cum Laude, he never took Ritalin, his drug of choice was oxygen from being able to breathe normally, he needed to breathe and have high quality sleep.
He also went from a 50% to a 90% on the growth curve and went from being short and chubby to stretched out slim body type. His behavior was remarkable improved. He never complained of headaches but was often angry, his anger also disappeared.
I treat adult patients for chronic headaches,sleep disorders, facial pain and migraines related to jaw position, disrupted nasopharyngeal airway and MPD and TMJ disorders. These patients did not just happen but developed into adults with these issues from childhood.
Robert Corrucini has shown in his landmark book "How Anthropology Informs the Orthodontic Diagnosis of Malocclusion's Causes" that the development of the human face and jaws has been subjected to negative epigenetic changes over the last 400 years. This is due to pollution, allergies, decrease in breast feeding and introducton of soft mushy diets that prevent proper development of jaws, jaw muscles, jaw joints and effects breathing and posture.
Dr Gozal at University of Chicago has shown that these problems should be ideally corrected before the age of 8 years old. Most dentists do not assess or address airway issues related to jaw and tongue position in patients at this crucial period of their lives.
Chronic headaches in children can lead to long-term consequences that last a lifetime.
I have lectured on the common developmental aspects of Sleep Apnea and TMJ disorders both in the US and in Buenos Aires, Argentina on how these development changes occur. These are preventable disporders!
Suffer no more discusses headaches in adults but these childhood issues predispose adults to chronic pain issues.
https://www.sleepandhealth.com/suffer-no-more-dealing-great-impostor/
These patient videos are of adults but many started their headache issues as children. While they can be treated at any time, the earlier the better.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCk9Bfz6pklC7_UluWFHzLrg/videos
