Picture this. Your 9-year old daughter staggers to the breakfast table; hands on head, and moans plaintively, “I can’t go to school today. I have a headache.”

“Nonsense,” you say. You give her an aspirin with breakfast and say, “Off you go. You’ll feel better when your history test is over.”

But what if this happens every few weeks? Might it be migraine? Is there such a thing as migraine in children?

Betsy’s Migraines – a true story

My introduction to the possibility of migraine in children came when I was teaching fourth grade in Massachusetts. That’s when I met 9-year old Betsy. Betsy was a pretty child, but headaches kept her from making either friends or academic progress. Betsy claimed to experience regular bouts of migraine in children. Her doting mother vowed that Betsy’s attacks were real, but I was skeptical, since they always coincided with things Betsy disliked.
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