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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{ 3 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…
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.