Child Heart Disease: What You Need to Know for Your Child Health

Many people do not realize the danger of child heart disease because they do not think that children can suffer from a heart disease. This is a very important and critical issue and you, as a parent, have to understand the basic. In reality, child heart disease is a pretty common illness happening around the world. Actually, birth heart disease is one of the most common birth defects. The disease is found in nearly one percent of all babies born.

The cause of child heart disease

Child heart disease starts with a small abnormality in the heart. This abnormality sometimes is not visible at birth. In general, a baby will have a blue lip or blue fingers if a hole exists on the heart wall. This hole lets the blood pass through from one side to the other side.

Another cause of child heart disease is an abnormal heart valve. This situation will result in letting blood to flow the wrong way. A surgery is usually required to remedy the problem when the child is older. As mentioned previously, most child heart disease is hereditary. However, some are not, and actually child heart disease can never be really predicted.

A heart murmur

Usually, pediatrician finds infant with a child heart disease when he or she hears a heart murmur during routine examination. A noise that the blood creates when it flows through the heart is called a heart murmur. The noise sounds similar like that water makes when it flows through a hose. This situation is common in children and it can be either a harmless situation or a dangerous condition.

One of the most common signs of child heart disease is a heart murmur. Therefore, most parents will get panic attack when they hear the term. In many occasions, a heart murmur is an innocent noise. It shows that nothing is wrong with your child and that the heart functions perfectly normal.

However, sometimes a heart murmur is actually shows a child heart disease symptom. This happens when a hole exists in the heart, leaking heart valve, or a narrow heart valve. Usually when a doctor believes that there is a heart problem, he or she will refer the child to a pediatric cardiologist, a doctor specialist in child heart disease. The cardiologist will do a proper examination to discover whether the problem is real or not.

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Child Heart Disease: What You Need to Know for Your Child Health