by Wockhardt Foudation
Heart disease is not a significant cause of loss of life among children and youngsters, but it is the major cause of death among adults.
Congenital heart problems are the most common birth defect, affecting 1 in every 100 infants. Most of the threats are usually passed down through family members (they are hereditary) or they are the result of another illness or disease. These risks usually can be controlled. Congenital heart disease (heart problems you are born with) cannot be changed, but better tests and treatments are now available for children with these types of heart problems.
What causes a heart defect?
Usually a heart defect develops when the baby is still growing in the womb. Usually doctors cannot tell why this has occurred and it is not caused by anything the mother did during her pregnancy.
Sometimes heart problems are due to genetics (ie: family history).
Sometimes certain diseases in childhood cause harm to the heart.
Sometimes children get problems with their heart after a viral infection. This is incredibly unusual.
Signs and symptoms of heart defects
Many children appear healthy and their parents do not know they have a heart defects. If children do have symptoms, they often develop in the first few weeks after they are born.
Common symptoms include:
'Blue baby' - blue skin and blue around the lips.
Difficulty feeding.
Shortness of breath.
These symptoms result from a decreased oxygen supply to the body, which happens because:
Blood does not have as much oxygen as usual, or
The heart does not pump as well as it should.
Again, some of these risk factors can be changed, treated, or modified, and some cannot. But it is important to realize that prevention is the best way to avoid a heart defect later in life. Controlling as many risk factors as possible, developing in childhood, will help decrease your child's risk of developing heart disease as an adult.
Treatment for heart defects
If signs develop very quickly, or if your baby is a newborn, your physician will arrange tests and therapy much more quickly. Most heart defects can be fixed with medication. Sometimes surgery or other techniques may be needed. In some cases there is no need for any treatment.
Medicine
For some heart problems children can take medicine which can be ceased once the problem has enhanced. Sometimes medicines need to be taken for many years or even for all their life.
Surgery
Heart surgery can provide a life-long cure for some heart conditions. A heart surgeon will discuss the threats and benefits in detail with you. In very rare cases where surgery, techniques, or medicine does not help, a child may need a heart transplant.
Other Procedures
Some techniques include putting a thin tube, known as a catheter, through the veins to the heart to treat the heart defect. Your child is given a general anaesthetic for this.
Key points to remember
Heart defects are quite common in kids (about 1 in 100).
Treatment for heart defects relies on the cause of the problem. In some cases treatment may not be necessary. In others, your child may need medicines, medical procedures or surgery treatment (and sometimes a combination of all).
Kids with minimal heart related problems often live long and normal lives without therapy.
Children who need treatment often have generally regular life with little or no restrictions to what they can do.