7 Warning Signs of Risk for Congenital Heart Disease

Congenital heart disease happens to about 8 infants for every 1,000 births. There are both cyanotic congenital heart disease and non-cyanotic congenital heart disease. Each type has different levels of severity, and mortality can occur from the moment of birth to until after growing up to live a normal life and then starting a family.

 

Naturally, having children in the family with congenital heart disease is a cause for immense worry, discomfort and suffering, and it can be a burden on the family’s finances. Therefore, knowing whether or not a child has congenital heart disease is very important. The major criteria used to easily analyze whether or not a child has congenital heart disease are as follows: 

 

Cyanosis means that the child has dark red blotches all over the body and particularly around the lips, tongue, fingertips and toe tips (and not green in color like in general). The color becomes especially pronounced during breastfeeding or when crying, and in cases where this symptom has been present for a long time, the fingers and toes can become enlarged similar to clubs (clubbing).

 

Cyanosis is a sign of congenital heart disease. It is found only in congenital heart disease cases with significant abnormalities inside the heart and/or coronary arteries that cause deoxygenated blood to be mixed with oxygenated blood, thus leading to a darker color of blood and for cyanosis to occur. However, if the heart abnormality does not involve mixing of deoxygenated blood with oxygenated blood, this is known as acyanosis congenital heart disease.

 

A young or small baby when breastfeeding might be observed by the parents to be quite unskilled at the task by being able to suckle only a little at a time. As a result, the child has to take more frequent and longer breaks than normal to drink milk until full when compared to ordinary children of the same age. This is because babies with congenital heart disease might experience blood accumulation in the lungs that cause oxygen exchanges with blood in the lungs to be poorer than they should and for the lungs to also have less elasticity, thus causing fatigue especially during breastfeeding and when exercising.

 

If this symptom is present, it is due to blood accumulation in the lungs causing the child to have to breathe more rapidly than normal in order to sufficiently exchange oxygen to meet the body’s needs. This symptom is the same as in children who become more easily fatigued than normal during breastfeeding, and it can also be accompanied by panting, especially after breastfeeding or minor exercises.

 

Parents might notice that their child sweats more than usual regardless of whether the weather is hot or cold. For example, the child might sweat while every normal person nearby feels that weather is quite comfortable. This is especially true around the forehead, the back of the head and the back, etc. Sometimes, the pillow or sleeping area becomes completely soaked in sweat. This happens because the heart has to work harder than normal with a greater rate of metabolism and greater function of the sympathetic nerve, which lead to abnormal sweating. This condition can be observed clearly in children that are also experiencing heart failure. However, if your child sweats only when the weather is hot or when exercising, then this is normal and not a cause for concern.

 

Parents might notice that their child’s heart beats more rapidly and harder than normal, with the chest rippling on the left side near the breast. Sometimes, the ripples can appear similar to a drum that is being beaten. Abnormally fast and hard beating of the heart is an effort of the body to sufficiently supply blood to various parts of the body to meet the body’s needs and compensate for the blood shortage that occurs following each beat, such as when the walls of the heart are leaking. In addition, this symptom often occurs during heart failure, and if the symptom has been ongoing for a long time, the part of the chest where this has occurred will bulge out like chicken breast due to the protrusion of an enlarged heart.

 

This occurs because children with congenital heart disease, especially those who also have heart failure, are not very good at breastfeeding and can drink very little. In addition, their nutritional absorption in the intestines might also be abnormal, due to hemorrhaging causing food to be insufficient for the body’s needs. Because these children already require more energy than normal, they become thin and experience slowed growth, although cognitive development will match that of normal children.

 

This condition is observable in children with heart disease. Blood accumulation in the tissues of the trachea and lungs causes them to be greater vulnerable to infection, making the children more susceptible to influenza and pneumonia and to become sick more often than ordinary children. Furthermore, when sick, these children require more time than normal to recover. However, this condition must be differentiated from allergies and immune system disorders.

With these 7 important points of observation, we hope that parents will be able to use them to determine whether or not their children are likely to have congenital heart disease. They are effective and do not require special tools or expertise, and if you have any suspicion, you should take your child for a medical check-up in order to clearly determine whether or not the child has congenital heart disease. The doctor will use a diagnostic device known as a stethoscope to listen to determine whether or not the child has abnormal heartbeat sounds or other abnormalities. Accordingly, the doctor will also order a chest x-ray and electrocardiogram (ECG) to obtain greater information about the heart and might order tests that require a special device like echocardiography, and some patients might even require cardiac catheterization in order to accurately identify the type of the abnormality and the severity of the disease as information to accompany treatment and prognosis.