[A ten-year-old girl with dizziness]

Childhood dizziness may take many forms; most often it presents as acute short-lived spinning attacks associated with headaches and nausea and less frequently as long-lasting symptoms with unsteadiness. Migrainous vertigo and middle ear infections are considered to be the most common causes of childhood dizziness, while head injury and pathology of the central nervous system are less common causes. We present a case history of a 10-year-old girl with acute positional vertigo attacks. Investigations and treatment demonstrated that this patient had canalithiasis variant Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV) in the lateral canal of the inner ear. The conventional view among many vestibular specialists is that childhood BPPV does not exist. We have demonstrated the opposite, and propose that childhood BPPV is more widespread than previously thought. We believe that children often spontaneously reposition dislodged otoconia through normal childhood play activities (e. g. tumbling, running, jumping, rolling etc.) thus avoiding the need to present for treatment with Epley and/ or Barbecue manoeuvres.