I have two children suffering from predictable recurrent episodes of dizziness.
My son is 15 years old. For the past 3 years he has had recurrent spells of dizziness every 75 days.
He wakes up like this in the morning, has trouble getting up because he feels unsteady, he walks holding the wall , sometimes he has very slight nausea.
In the afternoon he feels a bit better, sometimes much better.
This goes on for 5-7 days. During the attack, light bothers him very much.
He had an MRI that came out fine.
A neurologist shrugged us off saying it’s a variant of migraine and did not suggest any medication.
My daughter is 17 years old. She has had recurrent episodes since she was 11. She wakes up in the morning with a bad headache, nausea, and dizziness.
She vomits the first day.
In the beginning she would vomit also on the second and sometimes third day.
The usual pain relievers do not work. Immitrex spray worked once but left her with the dizziness.
Her attacks are also very predictable, every 65 days.
A neurologist said it was a type of migraine and suggested B2 for prevention and immitrex injections.
We have tried preventive migraine medications: topomax,uramox, lopressor all with bad reactions making it impossible to continue.
Anyone that has encountered a cyclic predictable phenomena such as this, I’d very much like to hear
their experience.
I realy would appreciate any advice you can give me as I feel helpless for my kids.
I am so sorry to hear this. there is nothing worse than your kids being sick. i wanted to write you because all this came on when i was 10 years old. i got my dizzy spells probably 4-6 times a year and learned what my triggers were- not eating, getting my period, lack of sleep, too much sleep and the seasons.
now that i have been diagnosed with migraine associated vertigo, it all makes sense! i did not get headaches with this before. (just this past year, i get them now though)
have you taken them to a neurologist? there are plenty of medications to try and diet and lifestyle modification to help. everything is posted on this board. good luck!
I’m really sorry to hear this.
I’ve not got children who suffer from dizziness (that’s me!) but have a family history of severe (and sometimes unusual types of) migraine, and unfortunately my daughter has inherited the migraine genetics it seems. I was wondering if you have tried any migraine preventative medication (particularly for your older child)? My daughter has hemiplegic migraine and has been taking pizotifen (sandomigran) since she was 12. It has helped her immensely (she’s 14 now), in fact she’s not had a majorly debilitating migraine since she’s been on this. I’ve also taken piz for migraine associated vertigo and found it worked well for me.
I am a 27 year old female… At about age 11/12 I started suffering from what I would call “dizzy spells”. Basically I’d wake up to the whole room spinning and get random attacks. This would last anywhere from a few days to a week and then be gone. A few months or years later, it would be back. This occurred from the time I was 11 til I was about 18. I went to see all kinds of doctors, had all kinds of tests and got diagnosed with just about everything— from meniere’s (though I had NO hearing loss or tinnitus) to allergies.
Hindsight, looking back I know what I had was BPPV – Benign paroxymal positional vertigo. I know this because I would wake up in the morning or the middle of the night with the “spells”. They would occur as soon as I would lay down or bend down. I can’t believe NONE of the doctors could ever figure this out!! From all the reading I’ve done, it seems like BPPV doesn’t occur in children (there is something called BPV, but that occurs in children under 4), but I am living proof that it does. It might be worth it to take your children to see a neuro-otologist, if you haven’t already. Though there’s no real cure for BPPV, but there is a very simple fix called the epley maneuver. Wish I knew about this in my teen years, would’ve made life a lot easier on me and my parents.
The most common cause of BPPV in people under 50 is head trauma, of which I had NONE when I was a kid! It also co-morbidly exists with other conditions such as Migraine. This might be something you want to consider. I hope you get some answers soon!!!
Thank you for your responses.
We tried linking the problem to food or other enviromental conditions with no success.
We have seen a number of neurologists and have another appointment next week.
The older one stopped eating chocolate, milk products,meat - and still got attacks.
They are so very cyclical I find it hard to believe it’s enviromental.
Both kids feel the worst in the morning, then during the afternoon they feel better, but the next day they feel bad again.
The doctors want to put my daughter on birthcontrol pills, but I doubt this will help.
Since the attacks are every two months the doctors didn’t want to use preventive medicine of any sort.
Immitrex during an attack sometimes helps with the headack but not the dizziness.
Hi
I have MAV (my mum gets migraines) and my 11 year old son has migraines at least 1 per month or so. He has suffered since he was around 5.
I have found that artificial sweetners like Aspartame and also MSG (in things like crisps) tend to be his main triggers but also if he does not drink plenty.
Try to encourage plenty of clear fluids for your children, migraine brains need to be well hydrated and try to eliminate additives for a month or two perhaps if you can or at least cut them right back?
Other than that i guess the person to consult would be a neurologist, would your doctor refer them?
Good luck
Dee
