INNOCENT HEART MURMURS IN CHILDREN
If your doctor says your child has an "innocent" heart murmur, there is no cause for alarm. This kind of murmur is harmless and often occurs in childhood. It is sometimes described as a "functional" murmur.
Innocent murmurs are so common that in any group of 100 children, more than half are likely to have them at some time.
These heart sounds usually appear between the ages of three and seven years, and generally disappear in adolescence.
HEART MURMURS are sounds produced by the circulation of blood through the valves and chambers of the heart. There are different kinds of murmurs which a doctor can recognize. He can tell wether a murmur is harmless or weather it indicates a heart condition.
Not all murmurs are innocent. It is not easy to examine a child when he is retless or a little afraid. For these reasons, it is not unusual for a doctor to want to see a child more than once. If the examination took place in school, the school doctor may request that the family physician make another check, and your doctor may need to consult a heart specialist. The specialist too, may need to re-examine a child from time to time. This does not necessarily mean that a child has a heart condition.
In addition to a general physical examination, doctors may check on the heart in other ways, through an x-ray or fluoroscope or echogram which give pictures of the heart; or by laboratory test of blood samples to find out whether anemia or infection are causing the murmur.
When murmurs do indicate a disease or defect, their discovery is important. Then care can be started promptly , and the condition may be improved, arrested or corrected. Any child with an organic murmur needs the supervision and care of the family doctor or pediatrician.
The majority of children with murmurs, however, are not heart patients and need no special care. There is no need to restrict their normal activities.
If you have been told that your child has an innocent murmur, you need not worry about him. He has no heart disease, and he is not any more likely to have it than other normal children. Your boy or girl can be as any other well child should be.
Pediatric Care as treated by Carlos E. Mijares, MD.
