Heart Disease in Children and How to Prevent it

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Heart problems in children occur in one of every 100. This is a big number which means you need to ensure that your child does not get here and if they do what should happen next.

The most common health problems that present themselves in kids are heart defects like congenital heart disease. These problems often happen right after birth which means you need to be mindful and be on the lookout for symptoms exhibited.

There are however acquired heart diseases that may also occur in children. Their causes could range from a lifestyle choice to high blood pressure. These acquired diseases include rheumatic heart disease and Kawasaki disease.  Read on to learn more about heart diseases in children.

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Heart Disease Symptoms

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When it comes to infants, you need to be very observant to identify the symptoms associated with heart defects. Some of these symptoms include:

  • Shortness of breath
  • Pale skin
  • Blue skin and blue tint around the lips
  • Difficult feeding sessions especially if your child sweats during this period.
  • Fatigue
  • Poor Growth

These symptoms are associated with a reduction in oxygen supply around the child’s body. The heart’s main purpose is to pump oxygenated blood to the rest of the body.

However, if this is not happening as it should then there’ll be a shortage of both blood and oxygen. This will result in the symptoms mentioned.

On the other hand, when it comes to acquired heart diseases, these are the symptoms to look out for.

  • Shortness of breath when taking up any activity
  • Severe chest pains
  • Abnormal heart palpitations
  • Passing out during an activity

Risk Factors

Paying attention to the risk factors that could lead to these heart health problems is very important. It will help you ensure that you address these factors before they lead to unwanted situations. Some of these risk factors include:

Smoking

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This applies to both infants and older children. As a pregnant mother, you need to completely keep off the indulgence you have for smoking cigarettes.

This smoke is detrimental to your unborn baby and could lead to heart and other problems once your child is born. Older children should try to stay away from second-hand smoke that is also detrimental to their health.

Second-hand smoke is as bad as smoking it yourself so claiming that they don’t smoke doesn’t help. All you need to do is ensure that there’s no one smoking around your kids.

High blood pressure

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High blood pressure during pregnancy might be normal and not cause any damage to your unborn baby. However, when it comes to children developing hypertension, this becomes a lot more alarming.

High blood pressure is a major risk factor and cause of heart health problems. This is why you need to ensure that their blood pressure levels are always maintained. 

To keep track, consider investing in a kid-use blood pressure monitor. This monitor will help you check your child’s blood pressure daily without the struggle of going to your doctor.

Family History

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It is important to ensure that you consult with your family to find out if there’s anyone who suffers from heart issues. If there is, you’ll be in a better position to prepare your child to prevent it.

It is also important to subject your child to random screening sessions to keep tabs on their heart health. This will help you avoid catching the issues later when it’s too late. Consult with a blood pressure monitor manufacturer to get your child one for kid’s use so you can check your kid’s BP at home as well. 

Lifestyle

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Most children have adapted to the trend of staying in bed all day either watching their favorite shows or playing video games.

As a parent, you need to reduce this stagnation and encourage some movement every once in a while. This will keep your child’s heart-healthy.

How To Care for Your Child’s Heart

To ensure that your child’s heart health is in check, here are a few things you should do:

Encourage Movement

Encourage Movement
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The slightest movement will go a long way to helping your child’s heart. Have them go out and play with friends or engage in exercise activities as a family.

Make Healthy Food Accessible and Fun

Child reaching for strawberries on the kitchen counter
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It is important to understand that children will always choose junk over healthy food. To avoid this, you need to set yourself up for success.

Hide all the junk and processed food and stock up on healthy meals and snacks. Also, consider experimenting with different foods to help ensure that your kid stays on track.

Always Show Up

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Your child will need you to be there for them without the pity and the extra protective acts. Try your best to let your child leave a normal life like the rest of the kids and let them know when to stop and rest. This will be supportive and will allow your child to be more excited about activities.

Conclusion

Heart disease also occurs in children which means you need to be more in tune with your child’s health. Pay attention to the symptoms and risk factors to ensure you’re doing things right. Remember to consult with your doctors in case anything happens that alarms you.

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Pregnancy and Heart Health

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The overwhelming joy of expecting a little human in your life is unmatched. The experience comes with so many exciting and anxious feelings especially about what you need to do.

During your pregnancy, you’ll have a lot to keep track of to ensure that when your baby comes everything is set. As you work on that you also need to ensure that you keep your health in check.

The best way to do this is to keep the regular doctor’s appointments to have your well being checked. One of the main problems that could present itself is hypertension which comes with other effects, especially on your heart health.

Getting to learn more about this and staying informed will ensure that things go smoothly for you.

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Hypertension in Pregnancy

Woman getting her blood pressure measured
Source: peoplespharmacy.com

Hypertension in pregnancy comes in different types that are developed at different stages during this period. These types include:

Preeclampsia

Preeclampsia happens after the 20th week of your pregnancy. It comes with a sudden increase in blood pressure that may cause harm to both you and the baby. It is a serious condition seeing as it could affect your health and your baby’s too or lead to a miscarriage.

Gestational Hypertension

This condition occurs in about 3 out of 50 pregnancies. It usually occurs in the second half of pregnancy and is not as fatal as preeclampsia. Gestational hypertension often goes away after the baby is born.

You should however ensure that you keep tabs on it with constant consultations with your primary health care provider. This is mainly because if left unattended to this condition may morph into preeclampsia which would bring harm to both you and your child.

Chronic Hypertension

Chronic hypertension is a condition that occurs either before you get pregnant or in the early stages of your pregnancy. With constant guidance and help from your doctor, you can easily manage this situation.

Be sure to follow your doctor’s instructions to avoid any adverse effects from this condition on your baby or even your heart health. 

Risks Associated with Hypertension During Pregnancy

Source: everydayhealth.com

If your high blood pressure goes unchecked, you could be exposing yourself to a lot of health problems for both you and your child. You’ll find that hypertension leads to heart diseases that make its performance very low.

Without oxygenated blood being pumped all through your body, some of your vital organs will fail and your body will no longer be in a position to cater to your unborn child. Hypertension may also lead to a placental abruption or early delivery before the baby’s time is due.

Hypertension also affects those who are trying their best to conceive and hold their baby. It makes this even harder especially if you decide to forget about your blood pressure and neglect your doctor’s advice.

When your baby is born, they could develop the same condition and that could affect their heart. Investing in a kid-use blood pressure monitor will help you keep track of your child’s bp levels.

Risk Factors you Should Consider

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Talking to your doctor about any concerns you may have earlier on in the pregnancy is essential. It will help you set the necessary measures required to ensure that you get through your pregnancy without any complications.

To have a better understanding of your hypertension risks, your doctor will consider the following factors.

Family History

Is there a history of people suffering from high blood pressure during pregnancy? You’ll have to have a clear understanding of your family and their health history. This will help inform your doctor if you’re prone to developing hypertension.

Underlying Health Conditions

Some health conditions may cause an increase in blood pressure. Given that you are pregnant this becomes more likely and could lead to hypertension. Discussing this with your doctor will help you get the necessary medication and instructions on how to manage it.

Medication Used

Your doctor will want to know about any medication you took to either avoid getting pregnant or boost your chances to get pregnant. This is because such medication is prone to changing your system’s normal workings and may introduce a few health problems. If you did, your doctor will have a plan for what needs to happen next. 

What you Can Do to Keep Your Hypertension in Check

doctor and pregnant woman talking
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Managing your blood pressure levels and keeping your heart health in check is a matter of leading a healthy lifestyle. Eat the right foods, stay active, and have a clear understanding of what you need to avoid. You should also consider investing in a home-use blood pressure monitor that will help you keep track of your levels.

Conclusion

Hypertension is one of the main determinants of your heart health during pregnancy which is why you need to understand what is entailed. Learn the risk factors, and how to manage the situation to ensure that your pregnancy has no complications.

In case of any issues or concerns, always remember to consult with your doctor. Your doctor will be in a much better position to help you and help boost your heart health while pregnant.

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Heart Health Tips for Kids

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Heart health is not only important for adults but also for kids as well. You need to take the necessary steps to ensure that you develop habits that boost your kid’s heart health. It is important to note that there are acquired heart diseases that could also affect kids.

These diseases include rheumatic heart disease and Kawasaki disease. With this in mind, you should work on changing your kid’s lifestyle to ensure that they acquire such diseases.

With children, introducing new concepts and ways of life will be hard. You’ll need to take it slow and start with one thing at a time. Here are a few things that will help with kid’s heart health.

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Healthy Snacks

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Children are prone to regular snacking throughout the day. However, these snacks are mainly consistent with highly processed foods and junk that is not beneficial to your child.

You should try your best to find alternative snacks that will replace what your child likes to eat most.

If your kid loves sugary snacks, then fruits will be a great substitute for the otherwise unhealthy snacks. Starting this at an early age will instill the right eating habits for your kids. As they grow up they’ll be more inclined to make healthy snack decisions

Healthy Meals

Healthy meals
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Most children are not big fans of eating a healthy diet especially when they have to do it every day for every meal. However, you should encourage them to embrace healthy meals and make them part and parcel of their daily routine.

The meals should be high in fiber, all the major food groups, and most importantly vegetables and fruits. Reduce the indulgence of salt and saturated fats in your meals. This will help you reduce the risks of heart disease and boost your heart health.

To make this transition easier on your kids, make it a family initiative. Get the whole family to adopt healthy eating habits to ensure that your child is surrounded by people doing what they encourage them to do.

Play and Exercise

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Exercising for most children is another chore that they have to do. However, to change this perception, you could include the exercises in their play routine. Get the friend they play with and encourage more movement.

This will be more exciting for your child and help them improve their mental, physical, and heart health. You should encourage your kids to join sports clubs in school to ensure they stay active when they get back to school.

It is also important to understand as a family you’ll need to contribute toward encouraging more movement. You can do this by having family activities and games that you all participate in.

If your child grows up with such influence they’ll be more inclined to keep it up all through their life. This will go a long way to improving their well being and keeping heart diseases away.

Screen Time

Children on their screens
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Time spent on the tablets and watching tv encourages the adoption of passive activities which later becomes a habit. This means that your child will prefer to live an inactive life which could be harmful to their health and even lead to heart disease.

To avoid this, you need to set ground rules and let them understand how long they are allowed to use their screens. Try to limit it to two or three hours a day and have them engage in other activities during the rest of the day.

These activities could vary from swimming, drawing to even going out for a bike ride. All you need to do is ensure that they are active and have an understanding of when their screen time starts and ends. This will encourage your child to do more and boost their health and wellbeing.

Regular Checkups

accurate bp monitor
Source: webmd.com

Subjecting your child to regular checkups is very important and you should ensure that you keep up with your doctor’s appointments. This is especially important for children suffering from conditions that could result in heart diseases.

For instance, if a child is suffering from high blood pressure, you’ll need to monitor the situation and ensure that it is well maintained. To do this, you have two options to either go for regular checkups or invest in a kid-use blood pressure monitor.

Both options will get the job done however, reserving your doctor’s visits for when you need a consultation is always the best. Learn how to use the blood pressure monitor and take the reading’s of your child’s blood pressure yourself.

Conclusion

Maintaining your kid’s heart health only requires you to introduce a few lifestyle changes. It may be hard for them to cope but they’ll get there. Just keep on pushing and remember the earlier they start this healthy lifestyle the more inclined they’ll be to run with it even when they are older.

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What You Need to Know About Low Blood Pressure for a Child

Lady checking a child’s blood pressure levels

Source : heart.org

Abnormal levels of blood pressure are often associated with adults and not children. However, this is not necessarily the case because children are also prone to both high and low blood pressure. This goes to show that paying attention to your child’s health is essential.

Don’t assume just because they are kids they don’t need to lead a healthy lifestyle because some diseases like low blood pressure cannot affect them. To better understand hypotension in children, here are a few things you should know:

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What is Paediatric Low Blood Pressure?

Blood pressure readings on a bp monitor
Source: webmd.com

Blood pressure is measured by looking at two determining factors. These factors include:

Systolic pressure

This refers to the pressure in the arteries when the heart pumps blood. It is the topmost number on the blood pressure monitor and the results given to a patient. 

Diastolic pressure

This refers to the pressure experienced in the arteries between heartbeats. When the heart is filled with blood and when it is relaxed. It is the bottom number found in the measurements.

Normal blood pressure levels should read between 90/60 and 130/80. Low blood pressure happens when the levels are lower than the normal range.

When it comes to adults, low blood pressure is not a major cause for concern unless it comes with other symptoms.

However, with kids, the situation is different. Low blood pressure in children is a major cause for concern that requires you to get in deeper and find what caused the changes. This will help ensure that the problem is taken care of accurately and on time.

Types of Paediatric Low Blood Pressure

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When it comes to low blood pressure in kids, there are three different types that you need to educate yourself about. They include:

Neurally Mediated Hypotension

This condition is also known as NMH. It happens when the body is unable to regulate blood pressure. It especially happens when your child is upright or has been standing for a long time. It causes a 20-25 mm Hg drop in systolic pressure.

The symptoms associated include lightheadedness, syncope( fainting), dizziness, and slow speech. This condition if managed accurately will fade away as the child grows older.

Severe Hypotension

Severe hypotension is closely linked to shock that occurs when your body organs don’t get the required amounts of blood and oxygen. It may present itself when your child has an infection, an allergic reaction, or gets an injury leading to a lot of blood loss.

This condition can be very fatal if not addressed immediately. This is mainly due to the restriction of blood and oxygen. Your body organs depend on the two to function making restriction very dangerous.

Orthostatic Hypotension

Orthostatic hypotension with the inability of your body to quickly respond to posture changes. It presents itself when your child sits or stands suddenly which throws off their body.

It causes a 20 mm Hg decrease in systolic pressure and a 10 mm Hg drop in diastolic pressure. This condition is fairly manageable but could be chronic if left unattended. It comes with symptoms ranging from dizziness, weakness, nausea, and fatigue. 

Signs and Symptoms of Paediatric Low Blood Pressure

Source: tipsforwomens.org

Knowing the signs and symptoms of hypotension is very crucial. It will help you identify the problem in your child and encourage you to seek medical attention on time. The signs and symptoms include:

  • Nausea or vomiting
  • Fainting
  • Blurred Vision
  • Dizziness
  • Weakness
  • Confusion

If you notice any of these signs you need to consult with your pediatrician and get advice on what could be the cause. If you want to be better prepared, invest in a kid-use blood pressure monitor, and take your child’s readings yourself.

If you notice any drastic drops in either the systolic or diastolic pressure you should book an appointment for a thorough check-up.

Causes of Hypotension in Children

Child drinking water
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Hypotension in children is caused by a variety of factors. Some that can be avoided and others that you can only manage. These causes include:

Dehydration

This is one of the causes that can be avoided by encouraging your child to drink more water or provide them with foods rich in water.

Sudden posture changes

You should encourage your child to move slower as they change postures to avoid the shock on their bodies.

Arrhythmia

This happens when the heartbeat and rhythm are abnormal. You should take this up with your doctor to avoid any heart diseases.

Anaphylaxis

This factor requires you to be very keen about what your child is allergic to. You need to always avoid whatever they are allergic to by all costs. This is mainly because anaphylaxis is a shock on the body that could be fatal.

Conclusion

Low blood pressure in children is something that needs to be addressed and not neglected. Pay attention to the symptoms and work toward finding the causes. This will help you avoid making the situation worse. Consult with your pediatrician to find ways to manage your child’s blood pressure and keep it at a normal level.

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