The clinical features of 76 patients 5 to 14 years old suffering from primary headaches has been compared with those of 495 adults in the same diagnostic group. An association between migraine without aura and female sex was evident in both age groups, while an inversion of the usual M/F ratio was found in the younger group with other types of headache. Childhood headache attacks resulted to be less frequent, less severe and with a shorter duration than in adult patients. Also accompanying symptoms were less common in children than in adults. Furthermore pain was more often unilateral but less frequently pulsating in the younger group. These results point out the need for a different approach to childhood headaches.