A lot has happened in our family over the last couple of months.
Our older son, Joey, started getting serious headaches. They weren’t too bad at first (back this spring) and we thought maybe he was dehydrated a bit or maybe he had seasonal allergies. As the headaches became more frequent, we took him to the Pediatrican to check him out – his fluids, did some blood work for allergy screening, but everything checked out ok.
One day over the summer, Joey complained of a very bad headache, and to our shock, his forehead swelled significantly and he felt dizzy. We rushed him to the Pediatrican’s office where they did a full neurological exam and they ordered an urgent MRI to be done the next morning.
After much stress and watching my 5 year old get his MRI, we were RELIEVED to know the MRI was clear and all was well.
This left us baffled though. The headaches continued and seemed to be getting worse. What was also interesting, was he started having stomach pain along with the headaches.
We went through more testing. Blood sugar levels, thyroid, liver function, CBC to check for a virus, and a complete metabolic screen. Everything was fine! Healthy & well!
We went to see a Neurologist. She did another full neurological exam and again, all was well. She diagnosed him with A-typical Pediatric Migraines. “A-typical” because the worst migraines caused the swelling in his forehead (this had occured 4 times by this point).
So, being that Luke has so many food allergies/intolerances, I started researching online as to what might trigger Pediatric Migraines and found that gluten can be a big trigger in children and adults.
We gave it a try. We removed all gluten from his diet and had to give it a few weeks as gluten can stay in the system for some time. After a week of gluten-free, we started to see big improvement. After two weeks, the headaches were gone completely – along with the stomach pain.
After a month of gluten free diet & no headaches, we re-introduced the gluten to be sure & Joey actually had a worse reaction that we expected. He had diarrhea almost immediately and sure enough developed a bad headache. That was his last gluten filled meal & he has adjusted pretty well to the gluten-free lifestyle since then.
We have noticed that his headaches also seem to be triggered by motion and as a result, he tends to have headaches while riding on the school bus and in the car. Usual triggers for children (and adults) are motion, dehydration, & lack of sleep. So, Joey is no exception. All of these things will trigger a migraine for him in addition to the gluten. We have also found that he is sensitive to lactose and have since gone to lactose-free milk.
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