Recognising heart disease in your child

A child can have heart problems without obvious symptoms. Sometimes, symptoms will develop slowly over time. Nevertheless, there are heart conditions in which a child can show signs soon after birth.

It fact, majority of heart diseases in childhood are congenital, there is defect or abnormality of the heart or blood vessels which are near the heart that your child was born with.

With advanced technology, majority of children born with heart defects survive and with proper treatment they can be able to lead a normal or near-normal life.

Furthermore, there are heart diseases that can be acquired in childhood. The most common being Rheumatic heart disease which is common in developing countries.

It is a condition where the heart muscle and heart valves are damaged as a result of rheumatic fever. It usually begins as a consequence of throat bacterial infection when not treated completely.

Depending on the age of the child, these are most common symptoms.

Up to 1 year of age (infants)

Depending on the type and severity of heart defects, the baby can show symptoms during first few weeks of life such as

- blue skin and bluish around the lips or inside the mouth and fingernails(‘Blue baby’)

- Difficulty feeding and may get out breath while feeding

- Shortness of breath and fast breathing

Toddlers, children, teenagers

- gets tired easily with minor activity and unable to keep up physically with other children

- shortness of breath with activity sooner than other children

- gets excessive sweat with activity sooner than other children

- passing out (syncope)

- complains of chest pain with exercise

- palpitations — heart skipping a beat or beating abnormally, the child may describe as “heart beeping,” or “heart squeeze.”

- seizures

- swelling in the ankles, feet, legs, abdomen, and veins in the neck.

Dr Ivone is a medical doctor based in Dar es Salaam.