WWYD - Rubbing eyes, headaches

I finally think it's time I get an opinion from other moms about this. In August, my son spent a day and a night in the hospital because of intense headaches that woke him from sleep. We took him to our local, small hospital. They sent in a pediatrician from a larger center and her opinion, at first, was to admit him and move him to a larger hospital to do scans and further tests. After getting a second opinion, she changed her mind and discharged him. He had follow up appointments for a week and since then has been fine. The reports from the hospital and doctor say he was experience ice-pick headaches. He hasn't had any of these intense headaches since then that we know of but I recently became suspicious again. I believe he isn't telling me about his headaches out of fear of going to the hospital again. Plus he's awoken in the past few nights with the same type of confusion and behaviour he had when we first took him to the hospital. During the day, he is more irritable and constantly rubbing his eyes. I booked him an appointment with our optometrist for the 28th of this month. Would you be making an appointment with the doctor again? I feel I should be, but I don't want to overreact.

Part of me blames myself for not taking him to the larger hospital right away. My local hospital is the hospital that misdiagnosed me four times and ended up causing me to spend 5 weeks post-partum in critical care. I don't trust them at all.

 

I would try to get him the optometrist or ophthalmologist as soon as you can and back to the pediatrician.

 

I would start with having his eyes checked as well. Eye strain can cause wicked headaches. Besides, that is the easiest to diagnose, and easiest to fix, so I always start there.

 

I would get his eyes checked too but if the ped is hard to get into I'd make the appt now in case his eyes check out ok you already have the next step lined up. Hope he feels better!

 

Sounds like eye issue to me too. If he passes an eye exam then I'd take him to an ent as it may be his sinuses

 

I'm so sorry about your son. It's awful. I would not take him back to local hospital, if I couldn't trust them. I would just take him to bigger children's hospital, or make appts with specialists there. You also can find specialists online and read reviews about them, so u could feel comfortable before u make appt. They might monitor him during his sleeps. You should do sth ASAP. It's awful that he's in pain and scared to tell you. This time, you should push harder for a result. Mothers instist is never wrong. I hope he feels better soon.

 

I would also start with getting his eyes checked, but I would also set up an appointment with a pediatrician.

Mother's instincts are usually correct and I would rather run one test too much, than miss something.

 

I would definitley go back to your pediatrician. Headaches in young children are pretty rare.

 

I was wondering about getting eyes checked as well. When I was younger I can remember getting headaches because of my eyes....However, I can never remember them being so bad that I needed to go to the hospital, so that makes me think that there must be something more.

 

The first migraine I remember getting was at about 6 years old. I may have gotten them younger, but I don't know. It is entirely reasonable for kids to get headaches, please don't let pediatricians brush you off. I was sick almost a day or two a week before anything was acknowledged all the way in high school! (I suffered until school let out and didn't actually 'miss' the days)

In the meantime, I used to use these nifty menthol gel packs like this: Be koool
Shop around for prices, but they really did take the edge off on nights where I was just trying to sleep it off. These days I use drops of peppermint candy flavoring, but with little ones it is too easy to get in the eyes.

Good luck, I know you'll be a mama bear and get your baby taken care of.