Ok first of all, we (Caleb and I) saw a new peditrician yesterday and were going thru the family history and got to headaches.. He starts telling her about his friend in England (Jasper) with CH.. she sat there with her mouth opened while he told her all about CH. I told her he went to a headache convention last year and was "up" on CH... I thought she was going to fall off the chair laughing - said he knew a lot more than she did and she was "impressed". (I like this doc!)

Anyhow after "her" lecture on Ch... we got to him having stomach pains and she threw one out that I'd never heard before. She said these could be childhood MIGRAINS presenting themselves as stomach pain instead of head pain - that it wasn't that "uncommon". (We've  had him on prilosec for several months now because he was really hurting and the prilosec seems to help).

Has anyone EVER heard of this before? My neuro said he would probably get migrains (and maybe CH) in his teens (because of family history) and I haven't had a chance to call him about this stomach thingy yet (it was after 5 by the time we got out of the pedi's office yesterday).

This one has me floored. Then she got to talking about how to treat it if it persisted (with migraine meds). I popped up and said that prilosec was working right now and let's let sleeping dogs lie and not put him on anything else... Geezzz - the poor kid is really getting slammed right now. He sure doesn't need "stomach" migraines.

I'm going to do some research, but if anyone knows anything - let me know something...Please...

Never heard of that but it kind of makes sense, doesn't it?  There's as much serotonin in your gut as in your brain.

Yes, I've heard of them. My 11 year old son was dx with regular migraines at age six. the ped neuro nurse practitioner said it was very common for kids to present with stomach migraine, or a stomach component to the HA too and to keep a look out for it. Stomach and head are more connected on kids than grown-ups. And kids migraine can present very differently.

always ask your doc, every kiddo is different, but here's what we did....
My son was put on B2 and Magnesium daily as a prevent. he also started being more aware of drinking more water so that he was always well hydrated.

for abortives he was given ibuprofen and reglan to take at same time. Reglan is an Rx stomach med. When he went through really bad patches we would give him a low dose prescription antihistamine (name escapes me at the moment).

the B2, magnesium, and water have been the biggest help. Also watching his diet, again that stomach, making sure he had good protein filled snacks for school, healthy lunches and that he never runs on empty, or misses a meal. We avoid artificial sweeteners. regular meal times help. If we aren't eating at regular time, he has a snack.

the diet and water is not so much what, but WHEN you eat and that's something that might be helpful whether or not he has headaches.

hope he feels better and PF!!

It makes sense. Both of my kids have more issues with their stomachs when they are getting bad HA. neither of them show signs of CH, I hope they never do.