3 Ways Moms Can Outsmart Migraines

Migraines affect up to three times as many women as men, and the condition is most prevalent in your 30s and 40s, which are prime parenting years.

Although migraines have no cure, and they can sometimes influence yout ability to parent, accept that you need to actively manage them instead of wishing them away. Making a few changes and be the best parent that you can be.

1. Find your triggers

Migraines can be brought on by everything to anything. “Migraines behave best when life is boring and predictable,” says Matthew Robbins, M.D., Chief of Neurology at Jack D. Weiler Hospital, Montefiore Health System, in Bronx, New York. Having a toddler who can be very predictable can initiate a migraine as well. It is best to pinpoint your triggers so you can try to avoid them. Your child’s screaming, tantrums, or whatever. You can steer clear from them when you sight them coming.

2. Adjust your lifestyle

Maintaining good sleep, exercise, eating, and hydration habits reduces migraine frequency by about 50 percent.  Also, 40 minutes of exercise three times a week proves an effective prescription medication at reducing migraine frequency. While accepting that a mothers’ lifestyle, work and home chores included may not permit her to exercise all the time, mothers need to accept that they do NOT need permission to take care of themselves. Chill out with a cup or bottle of water, stay hydrated ,and try easy at home exercises.

3. Plan ahead

If you are a chronic migraine sufferer, planning ahead will go a long way to help you when those times arrive. Make a list of your chores, so you minimize the amount of things that will spring up on you, plan meals for dinner so that you know what you are up for and what you are not. Lastly, make it a habit to ask for help from friends and families if it is possible.