All forms of migraine occur in childhood. Cluster is quite rare in children, but as visitors to my website have recently pointed out it does occur. Childhood migraine would also include the childhood periodic syndromes that may be precursors to or associated with migraine (1.5 in the IHS Classification). Some of the periodic syndromes were discussed earlier under other varieties of migraine. The incidence of migraine in childhood has been estimated at between 2% and 5.7%. It is probable that most migrainous episodes actually begin early in childhood, but the diagnosis is not often made until the child is old enough to describe the symptoms. Some observers have noted that the clinical picture of migraine in school-age children is only more frequent in the child, and abdominal symptoms are often more prominent. The visual symptoms experienced by children may be striking.

A particularly unusual type of migraine, with recurrent attacks of impairment of time sense, body image, and visual analysis of the environment, has been termed the 'Alice in Wonderland' syndrome.

 

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