BellaOnline Forums Health and Fitness Headaches/Migraines Migraine Headache

My big food trigger is wine--especially red wine--but any wine will do it. Big nasty migraine.

That's followed by nitrates/phosphates and aspartame (in any quantity).

None of the other regular food triggers bother me--chocolate, cheese/dairy. I can eat these without problems.

Mostly my headaches are hormonal. I get them when I cycle--they last 3 or 4 days. Great fun.

Interesting that it is mostly women posting here. I've had migraines all my adult life that are triggered by many of the things already mentioned - hormones, weather (especially wide changes in barometric pressure), cheese, white wine, sleep deprivation.

Turns out we have a strong family history and my 8 year old daughter has migraines. It breaks my heart that she will have a life time of this but I'm hoping she can benefit from my experiences and learn to identify triggers earlier. When she was younger, 3-4, it was hard to figure out when the migraine would hit but now she can tell us fairly accurately. We have her on a preventative medication that is working great.

By the way, I'm perimenopausal and my gyn put me on continuous hormones that so far have helped - eliminates the monthly cycling.

Best,

My son got his first migraine at the age of 6. I had him tested for everything under the sun, but he just inherited migraines from both parents. I didn't use preventatives with him--I was scared of using them on a kid (he's 19 now). He went from one a week in first grade to about one a month in high school to just a handful a year now.

My daughter didn't get them until about 16--she has menstrual migraines every couple of months now.

Mine started at the age of 10 and were infrequent (several times a year) most of my life. I'm premenopausal now, and this year, they picked up speed--four day headaches every other week or so that could be triggered by stress, sinus, hormones, or whatever.

I'm trying progesterone cream and this month, I had one day with a premenstrual headache. Big, welcome difference.

Hi Deb:

The prevenatives are very safe in kids - Megan's done well and kids in my practice on them have had no problems. We've used zomig with her to abort the migraines and that works well, too. We have a great pediatric neurologist who has been fantastic in weaning off and on as her symptoms dictate. We find school tends to be when she needs it most.

Not fun for sure.