Kids and Headaches: What else can you do at home?

There are four major factors at work when healing your child’s headache at home.

The first place to look when your kiddo complains of head, eye, jaw, or teeth pain is the neck. The upper neck is the master controller to all of those areas.

Posture

With the ability to scan their nervous system, I will show you exactly what is going on in their little body. Check out my clip on ND Today. I touched a bit on physical stressors for kids: poor posture, backpacks and technology, but I’m going to do a deep dive on this.

Is the position of the spine and head normal in the pictures above? NO!

We don’t know the long-term effect of reversing the position of the spine, but if we just look at what’s happening to the health of our children, this is definitely a factor. It’s one piece of the puzzle that we cannot ignore. Our nervous system (protected by our skull and spine) is our lifeline. What if our lifeline is compromised?

Addressing each factor includes prevention at home

There are some kiddos who are a bit more challenging. These three things are what I find to be the most common culprits. All three can be evaluated, and dealt with, at home.

Stress

I see this more in girls, especially if there is family stress at home and/or when they enter puberty. There’s a lot of crap that happens with friends and at school in the early teen years. As a parent, be the role model and talk through challenges and fears. Help her with self-confidence and self-love so she feels more comfortable in her own skin. Allow her to talk to you and express her feelings. Here are a few questions that have helped me with my own kids along with hundreds of patients and moms:

What do you wish you knew when you were her age? (Hint: Teach her)
What do you see in her that she cannot see? (Hint: Tell her)
What did you long for from your parents and other family? (Hint: Be that)

Food

(Pesticides, artificial sugars, sugar, gluten, dairy.)
If your child gets a headache after eating, that is the body communicating that something is toxic to the system. It could be after drinking a Diet Coke or Crystal Light. Or the perfectly balanced, good-for-you school breakfast, a chocolate muffin and apple juice. Or a big bowl of ice cream with sprinkles before bed. Every kid is different so pay attention to when the pain shows up, how long it lasts, how it feels.

Have them keep a food journal if they’re old enough
I suggest an 80/20 diet – 80% of the time eat real, whole foods (hunted or grown) and 20% is the ‘occasional’ snack and meal

Dehydration

Just about every pre-teen child that I see is dehydrated. They are to be drinking ½ of their body weight in ounces of pure water every day (e.g. 60# child = 30oz of water, minimum). These 2 steps will likely rehydrate your child.

Fill up a water bottle from home and bring to school.
Replace school milk and juice with water.

Headaches can be a sucker of personality and joy at best and debilitating at worst. Avoidance and recovery begin at home.

Be an advocate, find the solution and be a teacher.

After all, it IS our responsibility to unleash the beauty and essence in each of our children.