heart murmur | Imamother

amother

Sun, Jan 31 2010, 9:44 am

Im posting anon b/c we havent told our families. today the dr. heard a hear murmur in our 7 week old baby. Im so nervous for her. he is sending us to a cardiologist for an echocardiograph.
Does anyone know what they do exactly?
what could this mean for her.
Im nervous, we do hear her "sqeak" when she breaths and she sort of pants a lot.
Also she gets the hickups all the time. That is probably not related, but it could be.

anyone have a child w/a a heart murmur?

amother

Sun, Jan 31 2010, 9:49 am

All the things you say about her are perfectly normal for a 7 week old.

I also got all nervous when our ped sent my dd to a cardiologist because she has a heart murmur - of course he didn't tell you (like yours didn't) that most mean absolutely nothing and the child is perfectly healthy. Of course they have to check to be sure, and some are problematic, but most are nothing.

Why don't doctors tell you this?

PAMOM

Sun, Jan 31 2010, 1:05 pm

Many babies are born with heart murmurs--some are more significant than others. The first thing is to make sure you go to a good pediatric cardiologist. I'm sure your pediatrician can guide you or post here. (My dd's was at Cornell.) Next, don't worry (try) till you se the dr and find out what's what. An echocardiagram involves putting some jelly-like stuff on your baby's chest and then moving a hand-held monitor over the chest so the dr can see the heart working, including the inside of the heart.

My baby cried (because as she told me when she had the test repeated a age 3 for the third time), it felt weird. It doesn't hurt. I had to nurse her at one appointment to get her to stop crying for the test but that worked. I was still in the hospital after giving birth when she had her first exam and they took her without me. My daughter had medium-sized hole in her heart (a VSD), that closed on its own before she was three.

Last edited by PAMOM on Sun, Jan 31 2010, 1:23 pm; edited 1 time in total

amother

Sun, Jan 31 2010, 4:06 pm

My baby has a heart defect which b"h is now repaired and is doing great.
Some heart mummers mean that there is a defect and some are Innocent. Symptoms of heart defects included heavy, rapid breathing, low weight gain, trouble feeding. Not all babies with heart defects have symptoms.
An echo is an non invasive ultrasound but it is pretty long around 30 minutes that the baby has to lie still. Sometimes they sedate babies and toddlers so they will keep still. B"h my baby was never sedated during an echo and he had quiet a few of them.
Heart defects are very common 1 in 125 births

amother

Sun, Jan 31 2010, 6:30 pm

Two of my daughters have heart murmurs. Both were found at birth. With one daughter, they heard it in the hospital at birth, but didn't hear it after that until she was about 20 months. He said it was innocent, and not to worry. The doctor then didn't hear it until she was 5. It was making a certain noise that we had to follow up on every 6 months. He kept hearing it, so when she was 6 1/2, he sent her for an echocardiogram. (This was last January) B'H, it revealed that it was just an innocent murmur, to which she needs no follow-up.

The other daughter also had a heart murmur at birth. With this dd, they decided to send in a specialist right into the hospital, where they did the echocardiogram. I was nervous since she was so, so little. It revealed that the murmur was caused by a small whole in her heart which he attributed ti her very fast delivery. He said it was no worry either, that it would close. We needed to follow-up with another echocardiogram at 1 year, which we did the same day as the daughter I mentioned above. The hole was still there, but closing. We may have to bring her for another one to check.

Both daughters do not need any special care at all.

I was not in the room for these two echocardiograms (dh took them both). However, my oldest dd had when when she was 6 months old. It wasn't related to a murmur, she had RSV and bronchiolitis and they wanted to check her heart. It is totally painless for the baby, It is somewaht similar to an ultrasound during pregnancy. The whole process took about 45 minutes. The technician uses a wand over the baby's heart and checks the whole thing. You can watch everything on a monitor.

I hope everything goes well!

amother

Sun, Jan 31 2010, 6:49 pm

Both of my boys were born with heart murmers. My youngest had a murmur detected at birth and he had a heart condition, b"h he is doing well. My other son had a murmur that was detected at 5 yrs. of age and he had an echo and the doctor said it was innocent and would not need any follow ups. My husband and myself both have innocent murmurs that do not have any affect on our life. My youngest with the heart issue is being overseen by a wonderful dr. in Maimonides hosp. but his actual surgery was done in Mt. Sinai. Many of these murmurs are innocent but it is important to have it checked out.