The symptoms of abdominal migraine regularly confuse doctors. It’s surprisingly common in children, so it’s equally surprising that so many people have never even heard of it!
The most recognizable symptom of abdominal migraine is the recurring abdominal pain. In between attacks, everything will be fine. But then the stomach pain returns, often lasting a whole 24 hours (anywhere from 1-72 hours).
As with many types of migraine, there is often no headache. The most common symptoms are:
- Abdominal pain
- No appetite (anorexia)
- nausea/vomiting
- pallor (going pale)
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Aside from these, there may be headache, sensitivity to light, irritability, diarrhea, and dark shadows under the eyes. The symptoms of abdominal migraine are episodic – that is, they come in "attacks" with healthy periods in between, just like other types of migraine.
Sometimes these symptoms appear in adults, but normally they occur in children between the ages of 5 and 9. It can be very tricky to diagnose, and it’s important to rule out other possible issues (such as irritable bowel syndrome, Crohn’s disease and peptic ulcer). Sometimes children are diagnosed with cyclic vomiting syndrome (CVS) – recent studies are suggesting that CVS may actually be abdominal migraine.
It’s also important to deal with abdominal migraine because it can lead to other kinds of migraine in adulthood. It’s a big help to get a proper diagnosis and proper treatment early on.
Side note: Why are these abdominal symptoms included in the category of migraine? There are two main reasons. First, there are symptoms similar to many types of migraine – it comes in episodes, nausea is often present, sensitivity to light, etc. Second, researchers discovered that people with abdominal migraine symptoms often had other family members with more familiar types of migraine.
Remember, migraine is not just another name for a headache!
More on abdominal migraine here.
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{ 22 comments… read them below or add one }
every four months i wake up in the middle of the night feeling dizzy and within the hour i am throwing up every 20 mins for six hrs.
it takes me around 5 days to recover because of the dizzyness and headaches. what is the cure for abdiminal migranes.
there is no cure for abdominal migranes. Our daughter has been extremly sick for the past three weeks and spent the last week in the hospital. Make a long story short and after gallbladder removal, she was diagnosed with the abdominal migranes. She is on 3 medicines for it, one to help with the pain and one for nausea, and then the one that she will take for now on on a daily basis. You just have to learn to deal with it and figure out what triggers it.. Good luck… Luckily we found a great doctor at Cooks childrens Hospital in Ft. Worth, TX…
Sheryl,
Please, I am interested in learning more about your daughter’s symptoms with abdominal migraines. My daughter also had her gallbladder and appendix removed this past July, and she is still having awful belly pains. Up high in the pit of her stomach, and down low beneath her belly button in a band pattern. I am suspecting abdominal migraines. She is currently taking Cholestyramine (Prevalite powder) for excess bile absorbtion which was causing diarrhea after every meal since her gallbladder was removed. The Pediatric GI Team at Cleveland Clinic have done mulitple tests/procedures with little results, aside from the abnormal gallbladder function. She is on Zantac 150 twice a day as well, but nothing is helping her.
I’m sorry I never went back and checked this site, but hope your child is doing better by now and they drs have been able to diagnose and find a treatment right for your child. My daughter now as the IBS ontop of the abdominal migraines and the head migraines, but right now everything going well besides lossing so much weight. Medicines are helping they are supposed to. Let me know how yall are doing..
What doctor at Cooks Childrens Hospital did you see? If you dont mind me asking.
She sees Dr. Bangole Osuntokun(oceantoken) at the GI clinic at Cooks. He is awesome.
I found out at age 33 that I have cyclic vomiting syndrome to go with my migraines. I had what I thought was a stomach virus and threw up violently for at least 3 days. I went to my doctor’s office when 50 mg of phenergan would not even slow down the vomiting. After fluid resuscitation, more phenergan, and a gastroenterology consult, I learned that cyclic vomiting syndrome is a real thing. When I read more about the condition, I realized that I had many episodes when I was in my early teens. I had several episodes that year, and found that nothing really helped. All I could do is take antiemetics and try to keep hydrated. I did learn that most children with CVS outgrow it by adulthood. So those of you with little ones suffering with this, there is hope that there could be an end to it. I still tend to vomit a lot if I have a migraine, and it takes bigger doses of antiemetics to stop the vomiting. There is no cure for abdominal migraines or cyclic vomiting syndrome, but what I have read suggests that they are treated similarly to regular migraine headaches. Good luck in your search for relief.
My son has suffered from abdominal migraine/cyclic vomiting syndrome that has resulted in several hospitalizations. He’s been on several medications to no avail, but we finally have this disorder under control by using magnesium, l carnitine, COQ10, and multi-vitamins. We also use relaxation techniques such as shonishin and massage. He went from severe episodes every few weeks to one about every six months. It’s changed all of our lives.
I have abdominal migraines, too, but I had it for a little more than half of October, and pretty much all of December. It was really horrible, and I’ve missed 20 days of school because of it. None of the pediatritions knew what it was until I went to a children’s GI clinic half way through December. I had to go to the ER about seven times. None of medications the doctors prescribed would work, pain medications didn’t do anything, and if they did it was only for about 30 minutes. All nausea medications did was make me drowsy. The only thing that helped was the morphine they gave me at the ER. Plus, because of the vomiting and no appetite, I went from 114 to 92 pounds. Saying as how I also hadn’t gotten sick in four years before that, it was really horrible. It almost makes me think that people who only have it for a day are lucky!
Danielle my daughter also has CVS with abdominal migraines. This has been going on since she was eight years old and she is 13 now. You are right that the only pain meds that help is morphine. She lives on zofran and phenegren. She tried one abdominal migraine med called periactin and it made her so sleepy she couldn’t get out of bed. They are now going to try Imitrex and we will see how that do. My daughter using zofran for nausea every day and it doesn’t make you sleepy so ask your dr about that. We were in the ER over the weekend and sometimes the only help is the IV morphine. My daughter also has Crohn’s disease. Just hang in there and I know that going to drs is terrible especially when some times they can’t help. My daughter has had this for 5 years. Just ask for the zofran for the nausea. It doesn’t take it completely away but it helps some.
My daughter was diagnosed after getting down to 60 lbs due to excessive voimiting, no appetite..and all of the other symptoms. She was put in the hospital in May 2008 for two weeks and was asking the doctor’s for more moriphine at the age of 11. I was mortified but it was the only thing that would help her. She was diagnosed on the second Thursday of her two week stint and they started treatment. She was released the next day and the first thing she wanted to eat was a Big Mac (go figure). Now that she has reached puberty she has been ok but just yesterday she had another attack coinciding with her mentrual cycle. I was told by the doctor’s that this could also be a possible trigger. Make a long story short the doctor prescribed her Imitrex and within 20 minutes of her taking this medication the pain had dulled, headache disappeared and she was ready to eat something. I was amazed. I am a fan of Imitrex now.
I had Abdominal Migraines for about 5 years before the several doctors that i had seen finally diagnosed it. Several times the doctors decided that it was my appendix, but thanks to my mother, they didn’t take it out. I saw a doctor about 4 years ago who prescribed Imitrex for me, and the next time i had a migraine, the imitrex worked perfectly. The symptoms were almost completely gone within a couple hours. Now, after about 8 years of migraines, I am migraine free. i haven had one in probably a year or so and it feels great.
When I was 8 I started showing symptoms of a horrific stomach virus. I was vomiting, experiencing nausea and diarrhea. I was very scared because after the first episode I never got better . The symptoms would stop for short periods but they would always return. I use to refer to them as “waves”. I was constantly weak and sick. I went from 100 lbs to 70 because I could never keep food down. I also was horribly pale with dark circles under my eyes. I had countless tests and was poked with a bunch of needles but no one knew what it was. By the time I was 10 and still sick, we had had enough. It took such a toll on my family and my health (needless to say I had many sleepless nights and missed school). When an endoscopy was done and a biopsy was taken of my esophagus we thought we would get answers! Wrong. Nothing was “wrong” that they could see. They sent us to a gastrointestinal specialist who told me it could be IBS. The symptoms did not quite match up, but the med liberax she put me on helped. I was finally better, but I believe I was mis-diagnosed!! I think I had Abdominal Migraines all along! it feels good to know what was going on in my body
My daughter was just diagnosed with abdominal migraines after 5 weeks of vomiting and severe stomach pain. We have done many tests and now we are doing preventive measures to stop the migraines. Her gastrointestinal doc is giving her a nausea prescription, as well as a prescription for migraines. Hoping that this will help eliminate severe episodes from happening.
My son is 13 and it has been suggested by his doctor that he could be suffering from abdominal migraine. He doesnt get any pain or any other symptoms at all apart from feeling nauseous and sudden onset of vomiting, between the feeling of nausea and onset of vomiting there can be a space of 5 minutes upto a few hours, this can go on fo a day to four days of him being like this at least once a month, the doctor has prescribed sachets of paramax 500mg/5mg effervescent powder (paracetamol metoclopramide hydrochloride) to be taken on the onstart of an attack then every 4 hrs till not needed after. does this sound the same or similar to anyone else diagnosed with abdominal migraine?
Just like with Head migraines, the stomach ones hit everyone differently. My daughter started with the throwing up and stomach hurting really badly. She could eat and immediatly stomach refused it. She would be dizzy and her poor eyes looked like racoon eyes cause they were so sunken in. She got so weark from not keeping anything in, but prayers that its been a year since she has had a bad flair up and we want it to stay away during her SR year of HS. Good luck to all of you out there
My 39 Yr. old husband has suffered from CVS for the past 15 years. It consumes our life every 4 to 6 months. He is treated like a drug addict at our local ER in Arlington TX. He has been to every GI doc in Arl. E.R treats him with IV fluids, Phenergan and Zofran but now nothing for the pain.in the past adding dilaudid, and Benadryl would stop the cycle .Now , they send him home from ER still vomiting, so we have to go back 2, 3 maybe 4 times. This is a nightmare and doesn’t seem to be getting any better. He misses work, he doesn’t get paid. I feel like we may evenly loose everything (house, car, etc) because of this misunderstood disorder. It helps to know that we are unfortunately not alone.
Have they tried Imitrex? I am telling you I was AMAZED at how well and fast this worked.
We have not but i am going to call his GI doctor TODAY!!!Thanks so much.
U should try calling to Cooks dr. Bangole Osuntuken and see if he or someone he could recommend to see u about the abdominal migraines. my daughter is 18 but he is still going to see her not sure if its because we have seen her for years before or if he sees others. Good Luck, we know how hard it is and how you can’t leave the house. Kalee was homebound from school
I am 41 years old and had 6 weeks off work suffering stomach pain which meant I was vomiting/nauseous and no appetite. I went to A&E on regular occasions when it got very severe. Nobody knew what it was and just sent me home. I was in agony day and night for weeks. When it finally began to feel a bit better I went back to work and was promptly sent to BUPA by my workplace to see if I was fit to be back in work. It was BUPA who suggested it was abdominal migraine and sent me to my GP with clear instructions for medication to be prescribed. I am now on Betablockers and tablets to stop me feeling sick when I need them and have not had a pain or head migraine either (I suffered up to 4 a week) since July. I have my life back!!
Yeah. Good thing for the workplace being ontop of it. Hope you continue to do well.