How can I prevent my child from getting headaches

"The majority of school-age children get headaches, and many have headaches on a recurrent basis. Even before entering school, roughly one-third of children experience a headache at some point," says Russell Bird, MD, who is a family medicine specialist with Baptist Urgent Care (Middletown).

Headaches are typically hard to describe, especially for children. Some headaches are related to stress, while others are the result of an illness or injury.

According to Dr. Bird, a few simple measures will prevent all but the occasional headache in a child:

• Insist on adequate rest. Young children and adolescents need plenty of sleep – eight to 10 hours minimum. On the flip side, too much sleep can cause headaches, so don’t let your child sleep the day away.
• Provide a healthy diet. Make sure your child eats breakfast, lunch and dinner and has healthy snacks to choose from throughout the day. Also, make sure your child drinks enough water, particularly in hot weather and after strenuous activity.
• Take steps at the first sign of a headache. Encourage your child to take a nap – if possible, in a dark, quiet room.
• Keep a headache diary. Note times and places that headaches occur. Use information from the diary to help your child avoid possible headache triggers.

"As a rule of thumb, though, your child should see a doctor if he or she starts having headaches on a weekly basis or has head pain bad enough to keep him or her out of school or other activities," Dr. Bird adds.