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most common causes of vertigo and dizziness in childhood and infancy are
similar to those in the adult: acute peripheral vestibulopathy, trauma
and infection. Vertigo following air travel is more common in children
than in adults because of the frequency of accompanying middle ear
infection and effusion. Migraine is a significant cause of episodic
dizziness or vertigo in childhood and should be considered even when the
symptoms of headache are minimal.
Benign paroxysmal vertigo in childhood is a variety of vestibular neuronitis. Although unaccompanied by loss of consciousness, children may fall during the course of an attack. The episodes may last minutes to hours or recur for many weeks or even months, gradually decreasing in severity. The preservation of consciousness during an attack distinguishes the condition from temporal lobe seizures with a vestibular component and from vestibulogenic epilepsy in which an attack is triggered by labyrinthine stimulation. Congenital anomalies of the inner ear and brainstem are rare causes as is vascular disease or tumor in childhood. Rarely, typical signs and symptoms of Meniere's Disease occur in childhood. The youngest reported case being age 3.
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