Scintillating scotomas drawn by an 8-year-old girl. © 2006 Cicek Wöber-Bingöl (Cited from ärztemagazin, 40/2004, December 22, 2004; drawing provided by courtesy of Univ.-Prof. Dr. Cicek Wöber-Bingöl, Vienna)
"By the way, since the first migraine I had, which scared me considerably, I've maintained that children should be told about migraine auras so they don't get scared. Did I mention anything to my niece before her first migraine? Was she scared? No, yes. As an American, I'd call that... incongruous."
(Jerry Friedman, Newsgroups: alt.support.headaches.migraine, Subject: Synesthesia: a union of the senses, October 30, 2002, 1996)
The website of the Migraine Action Association includes a special section devoted to childhood suffering from migraines, the Migraine 4 Kids magazine (see here).
Entry to Migraine Art contest: Visual disturbances. © 2006 Migraine Action Association and Boehringer Ingelheim
"I just wanted to say thank-you for your website! My 10 year old has been a migraine sufferer for years but recently became very scared and afraid thinking he had seen a 'real' ghost! We were able to look on your website and he found pictures of migraine aura art and realized that was what he had seen - a prodromal aura.
When I could see and understand just what he was seeing, I could understand his fear. He had never had a visual aura before and we just were not prepared. This picture is similar to what he was seeing and indeed it could seem like a 'ghost' to a ten-year old boy, shimmery sheets! After many sleepless and frightened nights, my son is doing fine and back to sleeping soundly in his own bed. Just had to write and say thanks. I bet you never thought that your website would have this type of impact! Many, many thanks to you! Fondly, The Hancock Family"
(The Hancock Family, Email to Klaus Podoll, May 8, 2005)
"It really helped when you gave me the web sites about visual aura's... My daughter who has migraines that have a predominant vertigo component, has described the symptom of feeling like she's in a movie where the images are being played too slowly. That was on the aura site as well. Her vertigo is often an illusion of objects moving. She had the onset of migraines with a bright blue light on the left side of her vision, followed by confusion and a dull headache when she was 11 (she's 17 now). My daughter's optometrist noted that she has significant esotropia: when he covers one eye, the other tends to deviate. He noted it several years ago. At this point, she can't tolerate her contacts, as they make her see things too well. She can only tolerate her glasses. Thank you for sharing and making us realize that these symptoms are 'legitimate' symptoms of migraine. She has a great otologist, and ENT, who diagnosed her with migraine associated vertigo, and that went a long way toward helping us understand what she was going through. Previously, all of her neurologists couldn't understand how a migraine could cause vertigo."
(Judy, Newsgroups: alt.support.headache.migraine, Subject: Migraine auras experienced as child, January 16, 2006)
"You have been so helpful in making me realize that the symptoms that (unfortunately) are present in myself, my daughter, my husband, are not just some weird thing unique to us, but actually common and described by others. Once you know you're not crazy, it goes a long way toward reassurance. Thanks"
(Judy, Newsgroups: alt.support.headache.migraine, Subject: Migraine auras experienced as child, January 19, 2006)
Sarah at age 5 shortly after having experienced a visual aura with complex visual hallucinations, followed by headaches. She has depicted the imagery seen during her migraine attack in the wall drawing. © 2006 Sarah/Rosie T.
Sarah, Drawing of complex visual hallucinations seen in visual migraine aura, 2006. © 2006 Sarah/Rosie T.
"I'm enclosing a couple of pictures which I thought you might be interested in. My 14 yr. old daughter has been suffering from migraine with aura since about the age of 6. The enclosed photo was taken at the age of 5 and was some sort of night-time hallucination which Sarah had no recollection of, though she does remember head pain. She had her first severe migraine the following year, with complete blindness for a couple of minutes. Sarah is being treated by Dr. S ... in London, privately, although we live in Spain. She has been on many medications, but for the last year has been taking gabapentin, 300mg, three times a day. The second drawing was done when Sarah had collapsed on the floor during a migraine with hallucinations. She couldn't really remember doing the drawing. These hallucinations are extremely frightening for Sarah, and she literally shakes with fear. The drawings are of some of the scary images she sees, the words are from songs which were going round in her head. She also has most of the symptoms mentioned on your website, including the Alice in Wonderland one. In the most recent migraine Sarah said 'my mind is being taken over, I'm going mad'. Sarah was therefore very relieved to look at your website and see that she's not the only one with those symptoms. Sarah also took part in a children's drawing competition a few years ago for the Migraine Trust and her picture was published in their magazine."
(Rosie T, Email to Klaus Podoll, July 4, 2006)
Christine Kliphuis, De Migraine van Madeleine Als hoofdpin je ziek maakt. Uitgeverih Slalom, Amsterdam 2003 © 2003 Uitgeverih Slalom, Amsterdam
"I had my first rememberable migraine at 5, and I do recall an aura... I was at summer day camp and the class was making a sachet pushing cloves into an apple. I found I could not STAND the smell of cloves and had to leave. I went home and got sick, threw up, and my mom decided I must be allergic to cloves! For a good 20 years I was sure I was allergic to cloves but stuck my nose in a bottle on a brave day -- nothing. I think it was an aura. But I see how little kiddos don't connect the vague feelings of auras with getting a headache... Later if I was suddenly very thirsty, I knew a headache was on the way. I didn't pick up on other auras till I was a teenager! I wish you luck...your kids are lucky you are looking out for them. If nothing else you can offer empathy."
(Susan Porter, Newsgroups: alt.support.headaches.migraine, Subject: Children's Descriptions of Migraines, August 22, 1996)
"One of the things my doc used to diagnose my migraines, is a child hood memory that was obviously a migraine aura without a major headache.
Do you remember those old sinus wave machines, that measure sound waves? Normally used in professional scientific reasons and also used in the music industry. They are no longer used much.
Imagine a monochrome screen, gray background, green and orange waves. Now multiply those lines by thousands and add a few other colors and you have a mass of colored lines (Moving) across my vision. Like a picture on the back of your forehead.
I'd had those visions since I was in Junior High school and thought they were normal. They are not.
For me, they are part of the silent migraines I get. I no longer see that type of aura, as I now get bright flashes in the corners of my eyes--those are also visual migraines without pain. But, extremely annoying and distracting, especially when driving.
My aura for a painful headache is more like looking through water into a bright light."
(Nancy, Newsgroups: alt.med.fibromyalgia, Subject: For neurology visit, February 8, 2005)
"My first migraine was at age 10, first it looked like there were millions of coloured bugs everywhere and then I got the blinding headache. I've only had *that* aura once, thank goodness! Scared me witless and my father didn't understand what was going on."
(Vashti, Newsgroups: alt.med.fibromyalgia, Subject: For neurology visit, February 8, 2005)
"My mom tells me that I used to complain that I had 'those flashy Christmas lights in my eyes.' I remember that it looked like the white blinking Christmas lights, but only in the corner of my eyes. It wasn't until I was about 12 that I learned I was having an aura. I never really connected it to the headache that followed, either -- I think my mom thought it was always sinus pressure from allergies, until they started being accompanied by vomiting. I don't think it was very scary for me, though, because it kinda reminded me of those spots that float in front of your eyes, which I thought was normal. Oh, and this was probably about 11 years ago -- I was 7 or 8 then, and I'm 18 now."
(petitanana, Livejournal for Support Group for Migraine Sufferers, Subject: Visual migraine auras experienced as a child, December 12, 2005)
"I started getting them when I was in the 3rd grade.
This is probably not what you are looking for, but two relatives had died of cancer a month or so before i first started getting them.
When i first got visual auras, I was convinced that I had brain cancer and was going to die. As a result, I was scared and didn't tell anyone for months.
It did have an impact on my school performance, as I became pretty much non-functional while it was going on.
They 'looked' identical to the ones that I have today."
(trysha, Livejournal for Support Group for Migraine Sufferers, Subject: Visual migraine auras experienced as a child, December 12, 2005)
"When I was 3 or 4 years old I looked directly at the sun -- probably because my mom had always told me not to, and I wanted to see if I'd really go blind. I saw spots for several minutes. When I was a few years older, and started experiencing visual auras, it was just like seeing those spots. For years I thought I'd somehow damaged my eyesight by looking at the sun. At some point I learned about auras and stopped worrying about it."
(gemini heart, Livejournal for Support Group for Migraine Sufferers, Subject: Visual migraine auras experienced as a child, December 12, 2005)
"As an adult, I only sometimes have visual auras - they are so scattered, sometimes coming on within minutes of pain, sometimes so many hours before that if I am busy I only connect them to the later headache in retrospect. They tend to be either spots in front of my eyes, or general blurry vision, sometimes with a sort of visual throb.
In the retrospect of 15, even 25 years, I did have similar visual effects when I was a small child and first started having bad headaches (which was also when my vision was rapidly deteriorating). Weird vision was so common for me between the ages of 6-10, when I was getting new glasses every 6 months, and frankly needing them more frequently, that the only thing anyone connected to my frequent severe headaches was eye strain.
I'm not sure how helpful this is though."
(emzebel, Livejournal for Support Group for Migraine Sufferers, Subject: Visual migraine auras experienced as a child, December 12, 2005)
"The first things associated with headaches I recall as a kid... and something I no longer get... were little 'grayish' spots moving away from me... like the pictures of railroad tracks... as if all the spots were converging at a distant point. Then a headache. Those went away in my late teens and were replaced by the full blown 'colorful' blind spot / auras with the jagged edges that are so brightly colorful around the edges when I close my eyes."
(buford lurch, Livejournal for Support Group for Migraine Sufferers, Subject: Visual migraine auras experienced as a child, December 13, 2005)
"remember having auras when I was a child. They used to freak me out. All of my doctors thought I was mental and treated me for 'nerves' when here it was migraine auras."
(meanjunglist, Livejournal for Support Group for Migraine Sufferers, Subject: Visual migraine auras experienced as a child, December 13, 2005)
"I can remember both my scent and visual auras from childhood. They are, as far as I can tell, some of my earliest clear memories, and they are the same as now. Burning toast and tobacco for smells, and weird blobby lights and stretched out shapes for my visual ones.
There was a 'History Moment' on TV a lot about brain surgery and an epileptic who always smelt burning toast before a seizure, and when I would tell my mother I smelt burning toast, she thought I was repeating from the TV.
I honestly didn't know an age. I was diagnosed with migraines when I was 8, and I think that those incidences started before the diagnosis.
I didn't get a proper diagnosis until I was 17."
(possibilities, Livejournal for Support Group for Migraine Sufferers, Subject: Visual migraine auras experienced as a child, December 13, 17 and 20, 2005)
"When I started getting them in the 5th grade I had what I called a 'Silver Thing' which I considered to be a giant worm in my brain, and I thought it was trying to tell me that I was going to die from brain cancer. So I decided I didn't want to worry anyone, and never told anyone about my auras, including doctors, until college. I felt that if I told anyone I would become some sort of lab rat because people are not supposed to have alien worms talking to them from their brains."
(paroxism, Livejournal for Support Group for Migraine Sufferers, Subject: Visual migraine auras experienced as a child, December 17, 2005)
"My most common aura is pretty common I think, the typical 'marching scotomata.' I get what has been describes as ramparts, a series of shimmery zigzags that seem to vibrate, as they march from my centre of focus to the outside of my vision in about an hour's time. The faster my aura, the less painful the migraine.
In the past month I've had something new though-- tactile auras instead. Tingling or a feeling of burning or numbness in the limbs on one side of my body. Then maybe a tiny headache.
I also get phosphene auras occasionally, sort of like seeing stars, groups of stars, and flashing lights. I normally feel woozy after those but don't get a horrible headache.
By far my worst headaches are with prolonged marching scotomata. I don't like to see anything shiny or shimmery in my vision because it sometimes reminds me of a scotomata, which can sometimes illicit nausea and panic attacks."
paroxism, Livejournal for Support Group for Migraine Sufferers, Subject: Auras sans migraine, December 17, 2005)
"[When my vision just seemed to fill with after-images...] It was more like when you've been looking at a lot of lights too long. It's only within the last couple of years that I've ever had single objects stick in their entirety, with replications or on their own. My whole visual field has nearly always been affected when I have aura. The aura tends to float around my visual field or completely take it over and engulf. I have had full blindness a few times from migraine, first time it lasted more than a second or two was when I was 14 and had what must have been a hemiplegic migraine. The other headache I mentioned, with the big bright spot in my vision that I had when I was about ten. It had more than just visual aura. I remember it more distinctly because of the associated muscle weakness, speech problems and cognitive impairment. I had been out enjoying myself on a summers day and I didn't give in to the migraine till I collapsed and I had to be carried home. I had been feeling uneasy all morning before it. I still feel generally ill at ease before a migraine.
One of the scariest experiences of my life, the migraine during the Christmas holidays at my grandparents when I was 14. I had had Chinese food from a take-away, started to feel generally ill at ease a little while after. Then my vision just filled with shapes to the point where I couldn't see peoples faces. I couldn't stand the light and I was feeling weaker and weaker. My parents told me to go upstairs and lie in the dark. I did so and my symptoms got progressively worse. I started with an explosive pain in my head and tried to scream for help but couldn't. It was this period when I couldn't see anything but blackness and some flashing lights (and no, it wasn't because the lights were out, I couldn't make anything out except blackness and the flashing lights). Tried to move to go get help but felt just about locked in place, it was worse on my right side but my left wasn't that much better. I was aware of my gran's strokes and was scared that was what was happening to me. It must have been between 5 and 10 minutes that I felt locked in pain, unable to move, on my own without help.
The symptoms took their time to release, I couldn't walk but was wanting help and felt nauseous. I regained enough control to drag, literally pull myself down the stairs, a scary bumpy ride that I still remember very clearly. I think I started being sick at the bottom of the stairs, just outside the toilet. Projectile vomit. Got my self into the bathroom and vomited all over it. Was worried about the trouble I'd be in for the mess I was making. I got myself onto the toilet where my bowel emptied whilst I was still vomiting. I was an age in there (the vomiting and bowel emptying is still symptomatic to most of my migraines to this day).
Once that had subsided I dragged myself along the floor of the hallway (a long corridor) to the living room door. The headache symptoms were still there and there were other symptoms but by this point it was too hard to observe what was happening to me. I was shattered and had all my intent placed on getting help. I knocked the door, heard the parents acknowledge it between themselves. Someone came through and helped me to the sofa. Saw the mess I had made of the hall/bathroom. Asked me what had happened, I was still just gurgling. I was enraged that they hadn't come to my rescue before this point, they knew I had gone to bed ill but hadn't come to check on me. I think the adrenaline from that rage unlocked my voice because I started screaming for a doctor and for them to turn the lights out. I was sound and photo sensitive and very very angry and frightened. My head was exploding.
The last thing I remember was my family telling me to calm down. Them standing, talking to me from the hallway - they were going to bed, explaining that I was probably having a migraine, that the doctors wouldn't do much for me at the hospital and that it was the holidays so no one would appreciate a hysteric girl with a headache pleading for help. The pain in my head had been getting worse, I don't remember falling asleep, to me it seemed I just blacked out. I didn't wake again for a day and half. When I did'nt wake someone jovially greeted me with, 'ah, so you are back in the land of the living are you?' I spent most of the next week asleep. I didn't see a doctor until I returned to my own home a few weeks later where one of the GPs at the practise I then attended agreed with my mum (who was trivialising the whole ordeal) that it was JUST a migraine. That I didn't blackout, I fell asleep, and that I should take pain killers if I ever get one again. I believe he prescribed me something that would deal with the sickness as well but I felt pretty jaded with his response. I couldn't believe that my experience was an everyday event.
I only found out recently about the condition Hemiplegic Migraine and feel kind of vindicated by the fact that the recommended response is to take the sufferer to a hospital. I've had a few of these since but have never gone to a hospital for it or trusted a GP to talk to about it. I just refer to them as 'My Migraine' and have tried many different drugs for them and found Paramax helps the Classical Migraine I suffer from. I haven't found anything that prevents my migraine and the worst migraine I have tend to come on in such away that I cant treat them if I am by myself, I just crawl into a space till I'm over them enough to take something. Paramax helps the headache but not the aura.
I've never been big on dealing with my migraine because of the attitudes I've come up against. I try to hide the fact that I suffer with them, have found them embarrassing since that ordeal when I was 14. It definitely affected the way I perceive the help available and have been frightened to seriously confront them since. I can't stand them to be trivialised."
(Lynsey, Newsgroups: alt.support.headache.migraine, Subject: Migraine auras experienced as child, December 18, 2005)
"I only properly remember one classic style childhood migraine with visual aura, from when I was about ten. The light just got really uncomfortable to look at then it was like I had a sun in my vision that wouldn't go away. It obliterated everything apart from the bottom part of my vision. A big white spot in my vision that graded out and felt like looking at a really bright light. Didn't have any squigglies as far as I can remember. I had a chest infection at the time and I think that migraine was brought on by low oxygen. I don't remember a lot about my childhood migraines except for what foods I avoided because of them. I was in the habit of trying to ignore them and hoping they would go away naturally.
I also remember a few milder migraines I had as a child where my vision just seemed to fill with after-images. They tended to be brought on by diet drinks, have never been able to tolerate artificial sweeteners, cheese or MSG."
(Lynsey, Newsgroups: alt.support.headache.migraine, Subject: Migraine auras experienced as child, December 16, 2005)
"I was taking the ACT test in high school when I got my first one. I was reading the test booklet and all of a sudden the words started to scramble and bounce around. I was terrified and started to panic. I thought I was going blind, and I put my head down on the desk. My mind darted around thinking about how I would get out of the building if I couldn't see anything. I didn't know a thing about migraines/auras. My mom took me to a clinic when I got home and they said I was probably having a migraine. Not fun stuff."
(scheimpflug, Livejournal for Support Group for Migraine Sufferers, Subject: Visual migraine auras experienced as a child, December 24, 2005)
"Hey all... I'm 18, a sophomore in college, and have had atypical migraines my entire life. Definitely since I was over 2 years old. Yes, Mr. stick-in-an-unpleasant-place Doctor, children that young CAN have migraines! When I was very young, I would scream for hours on end although no one could figure out why. It certainly wasn't colic, either. But how many doctors were going to tell a mother 'Hmm... maybe your baby has migraines'. It wasn't until I started just falling face first into the floor (or concrete/grass outside)at any random moment that it was brought up. Still, they thought it was ear infections for quite a while."
(argyrathea, Livejournal for Support Group for Migraine Sufferers, January 4, 2006)
"I can remember 2 different kinds [of migraine auras experienced as child], and often they happened together, the first was little 'sparkly dots' drifting to and fro in my field of vision, the others were black shapes that sometimes looked like a silhouette of something I could almost recognize, so I guess that I was having both scintillating and [positive ] scotomas ... I also remember that I never told anyone about them because 'people who see things that aren't there must be crazy' and I had enough grief as a kid just from being overweight without adding crazy on top of it."
(Bear, Newsgroups: alt.support.headache.migraine, Subject: Migraine auras experienced as child, January 15, 2006; additions in square brackets by Klaus Podoll)
"That's interesting. I remember once when I was about 10-11 seeing an almost hand shaped dark blob falling from the ceiling (from current experience, a [positive] scotoma). I had a friend staying over, I woke her up screaming because I thought it was after her. Freaked her and my family out until I told them what had happened, then they found it hilarious. Thinking about it, it's odd how casually many people take children's reports of 'seeing things'. I would get very distressed, my family were accustomed to my reports and so my mother would just try to put me at ease. On an earlier occasion, I must have been 4 or 5. We had stood for a family portrait, after the flash went off I had scintillating scotoma. I was blind with it, asked my grandfather what it was and he told me it was 'the birdy'. I didn't complain about it because if it had a name like 'the birdy', then it was normal and I didn't want to be silly. It was a lovely day but I went to bed in the middle of it because I couldn't play as I was. I don't really remember how it resolved but I must have gone to sleep.
But yeah, 'crazy', stigma concern seems to go hand in hand with migraine just as much when you have them as a child. At least when you know what you've got you can rationalize that you are sane."
(Lynsey, Newsgroups: alt.support.headache.migraine, Subject: Migraine auras experienced as child, January 16, 2006; addition in square brackets by Klaus Podoll)
"I just gave up caring if people thought I was crazy or not, and found it to be the most liberating thing ever, if people think you are a bit nutz you can get away with saying damn near anything."
(Bear, Newsgroups: alt.support.headache.migraine, Subject: Migraine auras experienced as child, January 16, 2006)
"*brief history* Migraines since I was six, pediatrician thought it was chronic sinus problems. Not diagnosed until I was 18 and had nervous break downs because I couldn't go out on a date without throwing up. I do get aura (and aparently this 'aphasia' thing that was discussed earlier, but I never knew was associated with migraine). I haven't found any triggers, except possibly wine and changes in schedule. 23 now, got kicked off of my mother's wonderful state health care and prescription coverage last year."
(bubbledragon, Livejournal for Support Group for Migraine Sufferers, Subject: cries, January 19, 2006)
"My first migraine was one of my worst. I can't remember how old I was, maybe 14. That was a horrible headache and nausea and I had gotten numbness up to my elbow, but I didn't know what it was or if it was going to stop! I thought my whole body would go numb or something."
(Erin Lemelin, Email to Klaus Podoll, February 5, 2006)
"I also have strong memories from when I was four or five years old of being lifted, while awake, into a fantastic realm of vibrant colours. I tried to explain the earlier phenomenon to my parents but they didn't understand. They do remember me have nocturnal problems at that time but attributed it to 'belly-aches' etc."
(Dwight Lariviere, Emails to Klaus Podoll, February 20, 2006)
"The early experiences which I described took place in approx. 1954 to 1956. I was born in 1948. Fifty years have done much to alter my memory as to frequency and duration etc. The profound effects of colour, speed and being weightless are still effortlessly recalled. My most vivid memory is of being 'taken' through some type of opening in the living room wall while fully awake. I was transported through a realm of intensely coloured light with a great sensation of speed. After an unknown length of time I would 'find' myself back on the couch feeling tired and bewildered, but not afraid. This probably is not exactly the way in which I would have described the events at the time, but it is the best approximation which I can give."
(Dwight Lariviere, Email to Klaus Podoll, February 22, 2006)
"Do you know, if I started seing flickering things in my vision, sort of like looking through a window that had been smashed partially with a rock, but all the shatterings flicker around, and certain parts of my vision are blocked, is that a migraine aura? I don't really get bad headaches. Nor does it last very long, or happen that often.
It happened yesterday (February 21, 2006) and before that maybe in 1996 or 1997, maybe once in the early 90s, and then once, in 1979 or 1980 when I was an exchange student in Germany.
Yes a few years ago I had a bit of double vision which scared me. I had complete opthalmological exam and MRI and they found nothing.
Does this sound like a migraine aura?
By the way in 9th grade [aged 14-15 years] I do remember things like feeling I was being sucked up into my head, and things looking like they were on a projection screen, almost exactly like I read on your page. Scared me at the time. I never did figure out the cause. Maybe that is what it was.
I guess more what I meant was a feeling of being pulled up into my head. I don't really know how to explain it except a feeling of my entire body being sucked up into my had, and things seeming surreal (I know it sounds like LSD, but don't worry I wasn't doing that sort of thing)."
(Tony, Email to Klaus Podoll, February 22 and 24, 2006; additions in square brackets by Klaus Podoll)
Balottin U, Borgatti R, Zambrino CA, Lanzi G. Clinical characteristics and long-term outcome of migraine with aura in children and adolescents. Dev Med Child Neurol 1997; 39: 26-30.
Shevell ML. Acephalic migraines of childhood. Pediatr Neurol 1996; 14: 211-215.
Stafstrom CE, Rostasy K, Minster A. The usefulness of children's drawings in the diagnosis of headache. Pediatrics 2002; 109: 460-472.
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