About Headaches and Childrens’ Eye Problems
It is pretty common for parents
to bring their children in for an eye exam because they are complaining of
headaches. Headaches are a frequent complaint of kids but fortunately they are
usually not serious. Some of the more common causes of headaches in kids
include migraine, the stress and tension of school, certain foods with nitrate
or MSG preservatives, physical trauma, sinus infections and of course eye
problems. Parents can be concerned with the serious but truly rare occurrence
of brain tumors causing headaches but this is usually accompanied by other
complaints of dizziness, weakness of arms and legs and a loss of coordination.
Evaluating Kids with Headaches
As part of evaluating any child
with headaches I always want to be sure that there has been a complete and
thorough examination by their pediatrician who may need to order additional
tests or even a referral to a neurologist. Then I will need to perform a
complete eye exam including evaluation of the pupils, a refraction to determine
any refractive error or need for glasses, eye alignment and binocularity
testing and sometimes possibly a visual field examination. Generally I will put
drops in the child’s eyes to dilate the pupils, so that the optic nerves can be
properly examined and the refractive error can be most accurately measured.
Eye Problems That Can Cause Headaches
If
your child has uncorrected hyperopia or farsightedness, it requires extra
effort to focus clearly while reading. This can sometimes lead to fatigue and
headache. Glasses can reduce the effort required to see clearly at near
and improve the headache, if significant hyperopia exists. Mild hyperopia
is normal in children, however, and generally does not cause headaches or other
symptoms.
When
we read or perform other near activities, our eyes pull in toward each other,
this is called convergence. The decreased ability to pull the eyes toward each
other when viewing near objects (convergence), particularly while reading, may
cause headaches. This is called convergence insufficiency, and symptoms
include the doubling of images or words, blurred vision, fatigue, and headaches
which worsen with prolonged reading. At home eye exercises, sometimes
with the help of computer software, can help treat convergence
insufficiency. Glasses are sometimes prescribed, but costly in-office eye
exercises are rarely necessary.
Acute
infections, allergic and inflammatory diseases of the eyes can also cause
headaches. These problems are often accompanied by redness of the eye
and/ or the eyelid as well as light sensitivity or photophobia. Acute glaucoma
can cause headaches, but rarely affects children. Pseudotumor Cerebri
(aka, Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension) is a condition caused by increased
intracranial pressure or too much fluid around the brain, and this causes
headache and swelling of the optic nerves, but does not typically cause redness
of the eyes. During the complete eye exam we perform, we will be able to
rule out these problems as a cause of headaches in your child. If we do not
find any ocular causes of your child’s headache we may refer them back to
his/her pediatrician and/or to a neurologist to look for other possible causes
of the headaches.
If you or someone you know has
questions or concerns about childrens’ headaches and eye problems or needs a
kids eye exam, please call Doctor &
Associates-203-227-4113, visit Doctor
& Associates in Fairfield County, Google+ or
facebook.com/doctorandassociates to schedule an appointment.
Doctor & Associates offices
are located at 129 Kings Highway North, Westport, Connecticut 06880, 195
Danbury Road, Wilton, Connecticut 06897 and 148 East Avenue, Norwalk,
Connecticut 06851.
