When children experience chronic headaches, it affects them at home and in school. Their success in life depends not only on a correct diagnosis and effective treatment but also on understanding responses from parents, educators and school health care professionals. The following sections - for parents and school professionals - offers insights and tips for helping young people with headaches.

Parents
Parents want their children to lead normal, active and happy lives. It is natural, then, to be concerned when a child or teen has been diagnosed with tension-type or migraine headaches.

And, if the headache is migraine, some parents feel unnecessarily guilty because their child may have inherited this condition. Or, if a parent also has migraines, his or her identification with this issue could inhibit objectivity when helping the child.

As a parent, you should, of course, be sensitive to your child's headaches, not only about the actual pain but also about the fact that a kid will, at times, feel left out of family, school or friends' activities because the headache keeps the child from participating. Acknowledge their concerns, and help them understand what is happening. But, remember, too much attention or pampering is counter-productive. Over-reaction doesn't help a child put the headache in perspective, and it could create problems with other siblings or your kid's friends.

Once a child's pediatrician or pediatric neurologist has diagnosed the headache, and ruled out organic causes, you should help your child pursue a rewarding lifestyle.

Educators and School Health Professionals
You want your students to do as well as they can academically and to participate in school and extracurricular activities. But it is true that chronic headaches - migraine or tension-type - could affect a child or teen's concentration, performance and attendance to some degree. Nevertheless, a young person with headaches can, with your understanding, do very well in school.