Author Archives: twsadmin

Build, buy, or remodel. Which is right for your family?

There are weighty ordeals that we handle in the course of our lives. Among the most stressful of those ordeals is building a new house, buying a new house, or remodeling an existing house.

Buying a new home involves many variables. Everything from financing, to schools, to selling an existing home, to moving belongings, to relocating lives. A new home means new neighbors, new friends, and a new community, even if it is only a move across town.

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Music can do more than just change your mood and enhance your day. Music is a tool for empowering, healing, and adding vibrancy to lives, one day at a time.

Music is all around us — some good, some not so good, but always available. The car radio, smart phones and iPods, any elevator in any building, the “shopping soundtrack” in stores; we can’t avoid music’s influence on our daily lives. We don’t have to be passive “victims” of whatever music others choose to play for us. As active listeners, we can use music to make the day better, make work seem easier and faster, and reinforce our moods. To become active listeners, it’s helpful to understand how music affects us and how we can use those effects to our advantage. LEARN MORE

As a Parent, It is All About the Obvious

Like riding a bike, getting married, and driving, parenting is one of those things that you have to experience to understand. There is nothing greater, and nothing more impossible to convey, than the importance and meaning that comes with being a parent. Being a good parent is a lifelong choice. And, for most of us, it is an easy one.
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Safety is an investment. No cure beats prevention.

We all remember riding our bikes all over creation in the “good ol’ days.” A bicycle was, and still is, a child’s idea of freedom. Who didn’t explore our little world on two wheels, and how many of us wore helmets or safety gear of any kind? Many of us remember the days of riding in the backs of pickup trucks and bouncing all over the backseat without child car seats.
 
A New Day

Times have changed. Our world moves at a much faster pace, and drivers are less likely to watch for children on the roads with their ever-present smartphones and other distractions. Everyone is in a rush to get where they need to go, and there are far more vehicles on the roads. Our children’s safety is a top priority in our lives, and we owe it to ourselves to make sure they can play and explore their world safely.
 
A Cause for Prevention

The Traumatic Brain Injury/Spinal Cord Injury Trust Fund program (TBI/SCI), a division of the Mississippi Department of Rehabilitation Services (MDRS), is helping ensure children’s safety through preventing injuries instead of treating them after the fact. Their Use Your BRAIN program, administered by Allison Lowther, provides free bicycle helmets in elementary schools to encourage safety for bicyclists, skateboarders, and other children who participate in potentially dangerous activities. The group contacts schools to offer an assembly discussing safety issues, followed by the distribution of helmets. Young students are thrilled to have someone take their play seriously, and to get a brand-new helmet to wear.

The multi-sport helmets are brightly-colored and fun, and children are encouraged to personalize them with markers, stickers, or whatever they can imagine. The helmets are more than just protection, but protection is the ultimate goal. As Lowther says, “We can give you a new helmet; we can’t give you a new brain.”
 

100,000 Safer Kids

The trust fund was originated by the state legislature in 1996, and Use Your BRAIN began in 2010. With more than 80,000 helmets already distributed to date, they are well on their way to reaching their goal of providing 100,000 helmets in all areas of the state. “There are still parts of the state we haven’t reached,” Lowther says, but they are actively pursuing relationships with schools they have not yet visited, from the Delta to the Gulf Coast. They speak to groups as large as 1,500, often twice a day.

Lowther loves interacting with very young children; “if they grow up wearing a helmet, they’re likely to continue.” She encourages good safety habits early, since younger children haven’t yet stigmatized wearing protective gear at play. “The helmet is part of your uniform,” she says. Who wouldn’t want to wear a cool, colorful uniform to fuel fantasies of going faster and doing more impressive stunts? A child who protects himself or herself while riding is part of a team that will carry good habits into adulthood.

Lowther offers a wonderful, simple example of the benefits of safety gear. At some events, she will put a cantaloupe inside one of the free bike helmets and drop it. No harm done. Then she’ll take the melon out and drop it on the floor; it bursts into pieces. The human skull isn’t as delicate as a cantaloupe, but it can sustain serious damage from just one fall. Falls are the number two cause of traumatic brain injury (TBI) behind auto accidents, and they are preventable.

The Use Your BRAIN campaign receives funding from fees assessed for DUI arrests and moving violations, putting our tax dollars to work protecting the future. Specifically, according to MDRS’s 2013 Annual Report, “a $25.00 surcharge is collected from every violation of the Mississippi Implied Consent (Driving Under the Influence) Law, and $5.45 from all other moving vehicle violations.” Fines related to the number one cause of brain and spinal trauma, automobile accidents, become an investment in preventing the number two cause, falls, ensuring that safety eventually becomes a habit for all.
 
Rising to the Standard

Use Your BRAIN is subtitled, “Best Routine Against Injury Now.” The word “routine” is key. Safety shouldn’t be controversial or complicated; it should be a routine part of any potentially dangerous activity. Harmless fun can lead to tragedy in seconds. It always pays to be aware of dangers, no matter how small they may seem. A free helmet is a simple gift that can save a life, as safety becomes as normal as getting on a bicycle or a scooter and going off for a ride.

TBI/SCI provides helmets to kids at no cost; there are no requirements for receiving one, and no obligation. Part of the TBI/SCI’s mission is education and prevention, so who better than a group dedicated to researching and treating brain and spinal injuries to share common-sense methods of avoiding those injuries? Use Your BRAIN promotes awareness of the dangers all around us as we have fun in a fun way. It’s not paranoia, but simple mindfulness.
 

Peace of Mind

Parents benefit from the program as well; it’s easy to assume our children will be safe and careful, but it only takes one moment’s forgetfulness to bring on a disastrous, permanent injury. If we make our children’s safety a priority, we are likely to consider our own safety when we’re out having fun. A safe family is a sound family, with many years to spend having fun being together.

Our children can’t explore the world around them as easily as we could in the 1970s and ‘80s, but they can still taste a bit of freedom. With a helmet and other protective gear, they can not only guarantee their adventures will be safer, but they can also venture out wearing a uniform like our heroes do, ready for any accidents that may occur. Invest a few minutes in keeping your children safe, and Use Your BRAIN will match that investment with a piece of equipment that will more than pay for itself.

For more information on the Use Your BRAIN program, or to inquire about a visit to a local school, contact Allison Lowther at alowther@mdrs.ms.gov.

Personality types may not change, but generational environments and circumstances affect behavior and views. What difference can you make as a parent?

Every generation seems to discover the same insight and point of view once they hit their thirties: the generation being raised is nothing like the one in which they were raised. It is a perspective that finds reinforcement with every decade they add to their life.

Parents feel that kids have no idea how tough it was to be raised in the previous generation. Kids have it relatively easy. Everything is taken for granted. There is no appreciation. The world is going downhill to (you know where) in a handbasket.

The human race continuously faces change. The surrounding culture and events define generations. Today’s youth don’t know what a cassette tape is, long-distance calls, a phonebook, a rotary phone, an encyclopedia, or a VHS tape, let alone a “handbasket” within which they are supposedly taking a trip to the worst of places for actions that are not particularly well defined and are certainly not apparent to them. In every generation, the kids “these days” feel greatly misunderstood.
 
Quick to Point Fingers

The greatest irony of all is blaming children and young people for their generation, even though it is the adults who are fundamentally to blame for shaping the world. For it is the adults who set the rules, acknowledge social issues, integrate communities, support boundaries, define ethics, run businesses, go to war, establish norms, regulate industries, enact education reform, and rule the home. It is adults who truly have the greatest influence in defining the environment and setting the foundations for the next generation of children, by defining the world around them. The children adopt a generational identity and are, ironically, passed all the blame and the credit.
 
People Don’t Change

The same personality types pass through different generations and are influenced by their parents and the world around them. The differences in nature and nurture become apparent as members of the new generation turn interpretations into action, further demonstrating how much influence adults have in defining the generation being raised.
 

Taking a Turn

Even as adults have a heavy hand in defining future generations, each generation takes the stage and has an impact on the world around them. They develop their own language and their own beat. They build upon the foundations that have been set for them. They make decisions based on what they see as right and wrong in the world. They will rebel against some ideas and rally to others. They take collective action. The directions the generation takes socially, ethically, politically, and financially ultimately build that generation’s legacy.
 
Ice Skating Uphill

Children can’t escape their generation or their generational perspective. As parents we can try our best to deprogram what is happening on the larger social landscape, but in doing so we are swimming against a current. Every generation of parents fights to save the morality and work ethic of the past generation, in the face of the perceived ignorance of the generation being raised, at least in “their” own children.

While it is not possible to wholly escape the influence of culture without going to extreme measures, it is also not practical. The children being raised will have to take on the world side-by-side with their peers. They need to understand the world in which they live and the people with whom they live, in order to survive and thrive.
 
Adding Perspective

While you can’t literally move a mountain, you can certainly add to it. That is part of the art of parenting: helping children understand the world they are living in, even when, as a parent, you are new to that changing world as well.

As a parent you are able to help shape your child and influence that child’s perspective and appreciations. You are able to prepare them with tools that may be used to solve age-old battles or deal with challenges never before seen. Sometimes you don’t have to move a mountain; you just have to add an ounce (or many ounces) of perspective.

The importance of mentoring and preparation cannot be overstated. Your kids may be taking on world issues that may take generations to solve or, in some cases, your generation’s issues that just were not solved.
 

Passing the Buck

Each generation faces the challenges that are most demanding in their own time. As a society, it is not often that we face challenges ahead of time, before they absolutely have to be dealt with.

Every generation leaves baggage for the next to handle. It is disappointing when we pass along problems rather than trying to correct them. But sometimes, through great effort, society tries to get ahead of grand-scale problems that seem too monumental to solve. We see it happen from resource issues such as recycling and fossil fuels, to human condition issues such as starvation and epidemics, to human race survival issues such as nuclear weapons and global warming. However, in most cases, we repeat the cycle of passing on known, ignored, and under-acknowledged issues using scale, ability, politics, religion, and feigned ignorance as excuses.
 
The Time to Step Up

We can’t change the world around us, and every generation seems to be facing certain peril. But each generation finds its way. And while, as children and teenagers, their views of how the world operates seem terribly sideways, even across an entire generation, things always seem to right themselves once they grow up with families, jobs, and responsibilities of their own.

As adults and parents, it is our role to prepare our children and young people for their turn to rule the world. We are the providers. It is our role to ignore politics and outside influences and teach our children right from wrong.

Once a generation is asked to step up, and have to step up, they do. And, they do so with the tools and the worldscape we have passed to them.

In each case, the next generation always manages what is before them, both individually and as a whole. It is our responsibility to intentionally shape the world and the legacy we leave for the next generation.

Sometimes the things we forget are the reflections worth remembering.

It is really the smell that hits you first, a mixture of stale fish sticks and Clorox, before the din of a hundred middle schoolers who are hopped up on caffeine and sugar make their way out of the slightly ajar double doors. The long tables are crowded with bobbing heads and flailing arms as Lunchable desserts are traded for leftover pizza amid a chorus of clattering plastic chairs and scraping table legs. My grey Converse tennis shoes make a sticky sucking sound as I wind through the cafeteria, stepping over stray backpacks and looking across the heads of rowdy tables of boys and chatty cliques of girls, searching for our table. My table. A few months earlier, as a transfer student in a new school, these steps were the most terrifying ones, looking for friendly faces among the unfamiliar ones. There is something universally unsettling, among students and adults alike, about walking alone into a crowded room. Even these days, with a secure friend group, it is not an experience I relish. I am also painfully aware that I have packed hummus, garlicky hummus, in my bag. But as any middle schooler knows, it’s less about what you eat than where you sit and with whom, which isn’t to say that packaging, the cellophane wrappers of the latest grab-and-go snack food or the innocuous brown bag and insulated lunchbox, is not full of meaning in its own right. Embedded in these twenty-five minutes of rushed chatter among peers are some of the most important lessons students can learn in school and in life. Tenets of inclusivity, wellness, and socialization all characterize this ritual of lunchtime.
 
A Manner of Learning

One of the first lessons eating in a lunchroom will teach you is the importance of chewing with your mouth closed. In the literal sense, it is just good manners. No one cares to see the half-eaten bite of peanut butter sandwich in your mouth, and it’s impossible to understand what you are saying anyway. Beyond the social necessity, though, around the lunch table, you learn what it means to pause, to listen, to process. It is a time to learn to be respectful of others’ opinions. Chewing with your mouth closed, so to speak, gives you time to reflect on how you feel, and formulate your own opinions, before responding to the words of others.
 
Making Room

Another thing to learn at lunch and in life is that, if you try hard enough, there is always room for one more chair around the table. Being in middle school and finding friends is hard work. It is intimidating. Oftentimes that fear manifests as exclusivity. As a veteran of pushing more tables together, perching on armrests, and sharing seats with friends, I can attest that the extra effort to include the shy girl from your history class or the awkward boy who sits behind you in biology is worth it for your sake as well as theirs.
 
Lunchtime Identity

At first glance, it seems like you can tell a lot about a person based on what and how they pack for lunch. Do they go through the hot line? Do they bring their lunch in paper bags or insulated lunch boxes? Are they eating something packaged or something their mom put together? As teenagers, we look for identifying characteristics of our peers that make it easy to categorize one another. But when you peel that packaging away, what you are really left with is food. There is something profound about people of all ages gathering and eating. Relationships are forged sharing food and friendship, no matter what kind of container it comes in.
 

A Lifetime of Perspective

It has been quite some time now since I have eaten lunch with those people in that place. Years have gone by without worrying who will sit where or whether or not I should pack this tuna salad. But I suspect that the interactions within school cafeterias have remained similar. I hope so. Lunch is one of the last times that preteens and adolescents are given permission to play, to be silly. It is a period of transition not just from morning classes to afternoon ones; the lunch period is a microcosm of growing up, full of “nutritious” lessons along the way.

Brand new technologies, same old problems.

 
We have all seen it, participated in it, heard about it, or been victims of it — childhood bullying. Whether it is stolen lunch money (or other valuables), physical violence, or name calling and shaming, children being bullied by other children is an old problem with many manifestations, and one we adults cannot entirely solve for the generations coming up after us.

As the old saying goes, “the more things change, the more they stay the same.” People are people, and though our surroundings and interests and technologies differ from one generation to the next, basic human nature does not. There are bullies, and there are the bullied — but this does not mean adults should sit on the sidelines and do nothing to intervene. Quite the opposite.
 

Cyberbullying — New Form, Old Issue

The statistics about bullying in the United States can be frightening for parents, if we pay attention to them for just a few minutes. As examples: it is estimated that 25% of kids are bullied in school; most schools address bullying very poorly; statistics show that bullying is one of the top motivators in school shootings carried out by students; and being bullied by peers can have lifelong implications for behavior and self-esteem.

And now, in addition to the usual taunting and teasing of the past that required muscle and/or social standing, bullying over electronic communication, or cyberbullying, has become a real problem for our school-age children. We have seen some rather dramatic evidence of what this type of bullying can do to a child on the evening news lately. Cyberbullying allows bullies to torment their victims not only at school but any time of the day or night, any day of the week.

Cyberbullying can include text messages, social media (such as Facebook), pictures, and can even happen through email or in online chat rooms. In the place where children should feel the safest — in their homes — now the bullies have access there as well. A child who is being attacked at school can now be bullied around the clock, and online bullying can have an even larger reach and participation than at school. Social media posts can be made public and shared, pictures can be passed around via text message, and students can be humiliated and shamed horribly by cyberbullying.

Though most schools have a policy that prohibits students from cyberbullying (just like there are policies against bullying at the school), proof has to be shown before any action can be taken. It is just as difficult for parents to discover cyberbullying as any other type, but if it is found, it is important that it be documented and reported. One positive (among many true benefits) about online communications is that they are often trackable, so a bully can be sought out and dealt with by the proper authorities, be they school administrators, parents, or even police (depending on age, circumstances, etc.).
 
For the Parent of a Bullied Child

It is desperately painful for us as parents to see our children going through difficult situations where we feel helpless. We cannot fight our children’s battles for them (at least not when the “foe” is another child), but we can help them. Often our children will not open up and share about bullying situations for various reasons, so parents have to be attentive and watch out for potential signs.
 
Some of the signs that your child might be getting bullied include:

• physical injuries
• inexplicably missing/damaged personal items
• change in habits (eating, playing)
• not wanting to go to school
• declining self-esteem
• out of character, destructive, or self-destructive behavior

When a child is picked on, shamed, or physically attacked by other children, the harm to them is real. It is important that those situations be addressed properly and that parents be supportive and helpful for their children. Children affected by bullying are already victimized, so any type of reaction from parents that might reinforce negative feelings or diminish self-esteem should be avoided.

It is crucial to keep lines of communication open with our children so that they feel safe and comfortable sharing with us. Children should be able to trust us with their feelings, their problems, and their egos, knowing that they are not jeopardizing our pride in them when they share their struggles with us. Discussions about what inspires people to bully others are good, but it is important that real action be taken as well. A bully often has many victims, so by bringing attention to what is going on, many people could be helped, including getting the bully the help he or she needs.
 

For the Parent of a Bully

Almost as difficult as watching our children suffer is knowing that our children are the cause of someone else’s suffering. No parent wants to hear that their child is a bully, but we need to hear it and be able to help our children through that situation as well. Bullies may “grow out of it,” but often the reasons they target weaker children go deeper psychologically and need to be addressed for the child to change.

There are two main character traits among kids who bully others, and they are opposite sides of the same coin. Some bullies are very dominant, and tend to be in charge of their friends and social groups. They typically care a lot about their popularity and are interested in keeping and increasing their power base. The other side of the bully coin are those children who stand more apart from their peers. They may have low self-esteem and be less involved in social structures and in their school.

No matter which of these two personality types a bully may exhibit, or something inbetween, at the center of their attacks on other children is the way they feel about themselves. If you are belittling another to feel powerful or to increase your power, you are really doing the same thing — focusing on power. The same goes with self-esteem: whether you are trying to show how much you do not care or trying to feel better about yourself, the focus is still on self.

This is the main reason that bullies, not just victims, need help. Bullies have something going on inside of themselves that gives them the feeling that they need to lash out at other people in order to somehow establish or validate themselves or their feelings. These types of personality struggles can have far-reaching implications in adulthood and need to be addressed in order for a person to thrive throughout their life.

If you hear from the school, other kids, or other parents that your child is suspected of bullying other children, it is important that you not react defensively. Certainly we all want to defend and protect our children, but that also means protecting them from their own actions. So listen, talk to your child, observe, and come to your own conclusions with an open mindset and out of love for your child. Also, it is important that we not correct a child who is bullying others from a place of anger — this will only validate their own behavior toward those weaker than themselves.
 
Forward Thinking

Many things are unclear when it comes to the future, but some things are certain — bullying, death, and taxes. They have always been around, and they will continue to be. But when it comes to bullies, it is clear that both sides of the equation need addressing. Bullied children need help, as do those who bully them.

All parents try to raise compassionate and empathetic children. That is the best way to combat bullying before it ever begins. People who think of others and care for others are much less likely to turn around and take advantage of others. But, if and when bullying happens, it is important that parents be attentive and know how to respond and get help for all of those involved.

History and reflections.

As human beings, it seems ingrained in our nature to celebrate. We put on great celebrations for life events ranging from birth to death, from commemorating adulthood to marriage, and practically everything in between. We love to gather as families and communities and to give thanks for the wonderful things in life.

Traditionally, celebrating the cycle of the seasons and the significant events of the natural world were also important moments for communities to gather and reflect. The original focus of these types of festivals has been largely lost in mainstream America, given many people’s distance from nature and the fact that food supplies no longer rely primarily on local crops, but the coming of Fall can still be a time of celebration and consideration.
 
Historical Celebrations of Fall

As the seasons changed and Fall began, the most important event for our ancestors (from the human perspective) was the harvesting of crops. They relied heavily on a good harvest for their food, especially to make it through Winter. Virtually every culture has, at some point in their history, had a feast to celebrate the coming of Fall and the harvest.

Harvest festivals traditionally focused on family, community, and thanksgiving. Communities would gather together for a time of joy and sharing. The people gave thanks for making it through another season, for the abundance of their harvest, and also (amusingly) for the freedom from having to work long days in the fields. Fall and Winter brought extra hardships in past times, but they also afforded people time for a little rest.

These festivals took place at different times of the year in different parts of the world, since the time of harvest varies as the seasons vary in different locations on our planet. But many of the features would be recognizable to all — large feasts, religious ceremonies/services, gatherings, games, and a general time of thanksgiving and joy.

We see a similar pattern even now in our celebration of Thanksgiving in America. The timing does not quite coincide with the harvest, but many features of our holiday are shared with these traditional fall festivities. As nature begins to rest, the people come together in gratitude and remembrance of the past year. People enjoy some much-deserved time off with their families. There is a sharing of food and fellowship with both family and community.
 

Making the Time Your Own

Even though we may no longer live in a culture that is synced and attentive to the cycles of nature, we can take queues from ancient celebrations and what is going on around us to do a little personal reflection.

The central focus of Fall feasts was giving thanks. It is easy to get overwhelmed by things we are not satisfied with, and we easily forget the good things life has provided us. As we look back at our lives over the last year (or even longer), how much can we find to be thankful for?

Fall ushers in a time of rest. The budding life of spring and the vigorous growth of summer have slowed, and nature takes a break from growth and activity until Spring approaches again. We all need a little rest, a little break from our daily routines to recharge and reflect. What can we do to capitalize on a few extra hours for rest and contemplation?

Preparation for the future, reflection, and learning are also key aspects of both Fall and harvest festivals. The people not only celebrated the harvest of their crops but also made plans for how those crops would be used until the next harvest. Nature inspires us to reflect as we witness the preparations for Winter, from the falling leaves to the animals scurrying to store food. Have we taken time to consider what the future may hold for us and our families and what we can do to shape that future?

As Fall approaches, maybe we can all take a moment to slow down the hecticness of our daily lives and find some time to reflect. Perhaps we will remember how fulfilled and happy we are, or perhaps we will discover places in our lives that need care and change — most likely we will find a little of everything.

With subtle and misleading symptoms, pediatric migraines are regularly misdiagnosed.

I remember my first migraine headache like it happened only yesterday. It was Christmas break of my first-grade year. My grandparents were in town for the holiday. I was curled up on a pallet of blankets on the floor in my parents’ room. The pain was so bad that, as a six-year-old, I had no idea how to process it. Pain radiated through my head, the source of which seemed to be directly behind (or inside of) my left eye. I was dizzy. I was nauseated. Movement, light, sound — they all brought me agony. Normal painkillers did nothing to ease the suffering. Eventually that night I found the only two things that brought relief: stillness and sleep.

For a person growing up with migraine headaches, I was actually one of the lucky ones. The adults in my life recognized my symptoms and knew immediately what I was struggling with. My mother and grandmother also had these headaches, and later my brother would be diagnosed and treated for severe migraine as well.
 
Not Always the Obvious: The Symptoms

Many children are not as fortunate as I was in dealing with my migraine headaches. Evidence shows that up to 10% of children suffer from migraine headaches, and they are gravely underdiagnosed, or misdiagnosed, and therefore left untreated. Children can begin having migraine headaches at surprisingly young ages, even as young as two or three years of age.

Christina Treppendahl, FNP-BC, Clinical Director of The Headache Center in Ridgeland, MS, says that “only 50% of people who suffer from migraine ever receive the diagnosis and get proper treatment and prevention.” Children are especially susceptible to misdiagnosis and underdiagnosis because pediatric migraine is notoriously difficult to recognize.

Says Treppendahl, “Part of the difficulty in diagnosing migraine in children is that they often present differently than migraine in adults.” The symptoms may not seem like classic migraine symptoms, which leads to pediatric migraine being missed by parents and physicians alike. Some symptoms of pediatric migraine can include:

• recurrent headaches
• vertigo (dizziness)
• abdominal (stomach) pain (this is a referred pain known as abdominal migraine)
• nausea
• vomiting
• trouble concentrating
• avoiding light or noise

Because of the subtle (and sometimes misleading) symptoms in pediatric migraine diagnosis, it often requires a physician who specializes in migraine and headache care to properly diagnose and treat children with migraines.
 
Bringing Hope: The Diagnosis and Treatment

The World Health Organization (WHO) ranks migraine headaches as the 7th leading cause of disability worldwide. Between the prevalence of migraine and its dramatic undertreatment, it’s easy to understand how people suffering from this pain can lose hope of ever receiving relief, especially children who typically cannot articulate their symptoms as clearly as adults.

But there is hope!

For anyone experiencing some of the symptoms of migraine, the first step is to find a headache specialist and make an appointment. Diagnosing migraine requires several stages, since there is not something as simple as a single lab test to properly diagnose this chronic condition. Your specialist will note symptoms, frequency, and duration of symptoms, ruling out other potential causes. Assessment may also involve radiological scans (CAT, MRI, and others as deemed necessary) and blood work as part of the diagnostic process.

If the diagnosis is migraine, then treatment begins. The treatment phase is another place where we see the real importance of having a trained specialist guiding parents and children through this process. Treppendahl tells us that “many children are given narcotics for treatment (when being treated by non-specialists), which can lead to addiction and other problems. Narcotics are not recommended by evidence-based treatment guidelines for children (nor for adults).”

Since migraine is a chronic condition, the entire treatment approach cannot be as simple as taking a pill. A specialist and staff also have many different places where they can offer help to you and your child, including navigating migraine triggers, managing sleep issues, recognizing environmental factors that may be leading to migraines, mastering coping skills, and properly managing medicines.

Proper treatment for migraine includes a multifaceted approach and can involve:

• an individualized treatment plan
• prevention medication to reduce the occurrence of migraine
• acute or rescue medication for when a migraine happens
• keeping a headache journal to help identify patterns and triggers
• coping skills training such as relaxation techniques
• migraine education
• regular follow-up visits to the doctor

The Rest of the Story: The Happy Ending All Kids Deserve

Jump ahead about 20+ years from our opening story, and you will find me with children of my own, three of whom suffer from debilitating migraine headaches. Fortunately, because of my history, my children did not end up in that 50% of people whose migraines go undiagnosed and untreated. I recognized the symptoms, and my children are receiving the treatment that they need to help them deal with their diagnosis.

I was very fortunate that I could receive knowledge and treatment for my migraines, and that my children have had that same opportunity.

If you have a child or children with recurrent headaches, vertigo, unexplained abdominal pain, nausea and/ or vomiting, or if they avoid light, activity, or noise, please take them to a headache specialist for examination. It might turn out to not be migraine, but anyone who is in constant pain should be seen by a physician and helped. And if it turns out that your beloved little one does suffer from migraine headaches, you can seek specialized treatment and start them on the path to feeling better.