Yes, Children and teenagers are not spared from migrainous headaches. According to one Indian study in 2015, 75% of school-age children may experience headaches infrequently, among them 10% have recurrent headaches. Prevalence of migrainous headaches 1-3% (3-7 years), 4-11% (7-11 years), and 8-23% (11-15 years). It is more common in boys compared to girls in less than ten years of age, while in the adolescent age group it predominates in girls.

Reference By: "Primary headaches in children, Ajay Kumar Pan, Anuradha Mitra, Subrata Ray, Amitava Rudra Indian Journal of Pain 29 (3), 142, 2015"

• The head pain often affects the whole head rather than just one side.
• Attacks are shorter, sometimes lasting less than an hour but often the pain will improve within 2-4 hours.
• The headache may disappear but the child may feel sick or be sick and this may be worse than the head pain. Sometimes being sick marks the end of an attack and brings relief from all the symptoms.
• There may be abdominal pain and no head pain.
• Often car sickness is an indicator of migraine.
• The headache can come on very suddenly, and the child may be in severe pain in less than 15 minutes.

• Sensitivity to light/sound
• Nausea/vomiting
• Giddiness/spinning of head
• lack of energy
• Aura

They are temporary symptoms, which include eyesight or speech disturbances, feelings of tingling, dizziness, numbness or limb weakness. Eyesight aura can include blurring, blind spots, or a pattern of flashing lights, dark or colored spots, sparkles, stars or zigzag lines. Symptoms usually last up to 1 hour. Aura usually leads to a headache starting, but may happen on its own. In adults, aura usually happens before the headache itself, but in children it may happen at the same time as the headache. About 10% of children with migraine experience aura.

History of migraine in parents or other family members is one of the risk factors of migraine. 

There are many triggers for a migraine attack, which are mentioned below:

• Insufficient sleep or irregular sleep schedules
• Skipping meal or fasting
• Certain foods like, cheeses and meats, chocolate, citrus fruits, red and yellow food dyes, monosodium glutamate (MSG), and the artificial sweetener aspartame, too much caffeine intake
• Less water consumption or dehydration
• Exposure to sunlight/ flickering light
• Premenstrual phase in adolescent girls
• Stress
• Extreme heat/ cold or high humidity

It is diagnosed on the basis of clinical history and neurological examination. Sometimes, Neuroimaging (MRI brain/CT) and ophthalmic evaluation are required to exclude other causes.

To measure how strongly migraine impact a child's school, home, and social activities, pediatricians and pediatric neurologists use a tool called the Pediatric Migraine Disability Assessment (PedMIDAS), which consists of 6 questions:

In the last three months, how many...​

1. Full days of school were missed due to headaches?
2. Partial days of school were missed due to headaches?
3. Days did you function at less than half your ability in school because of a headache?
4. Days were you not able to do things at home (e.g., chores, homework, etc.)?
5. Days you did not participate in other activities due to headache (e.g., play, go out, sports, etc.)?
6. ​​Days did you participate in these activities, but functioned at less than half your abilities?

The total number of days are then added up. A score of less than 10 is considered little or no impact; 11-30 is mild; 31-50 is moderate, and more than 50 is severe.

Reference By: PedMIDAS Development of a questionnaire to assess disability of migraines in children
A. D. Hershey, S. W. Powers, A.-L. B. Vockell, S. LeCates, M.A. Kabbouche, M. K. Maynard Neurology Dec 2001, 57 (11) 2034-2039; DOI: 10.1212/WNL.57.11.2034

As we know, prevention is better than cure. So, here also preventing migraine is the best management instead of treating the episode. There is some below-mentioned lifestyle modification required to prevent the migraine episodes:

• Sleep hygiene (At least 8-10 hours of sleep in a day is required. Make sure that child is not having inadequate sleep due to snoring, obesity, or exposure to social media like television, mobile, tablets, or computer)
• High fiber diet
• Avoiding diet which are triggering the episodes
• Adequate water intake
• Prevent exposure to sunlight, wear sunglasses or cover yourself while going out
• Meditation, yoga, pranayama, and exercise helps to reduce stress
• Maintain the headache diary