how do i help manage my child's heart birth defect?

Question

What are the risks of operating on a child with a congenital heart defect? My child was diagnosed with a congenital valve problem very soon after birth. What are the risks associated with operating on a very young child?

Answer 1

Variable: Some defects like small ventriculoseptal defects close all by themselves and require no intervention, others like hypoplastic left heart require transplant. Unfortunately how you manage the defect depends upon the exact nature of the disease.

Answer 2

Get Good Advice: The best way to help manage a heart birth defect is to first identify the problem. Then seek advice from a qualified pediatrician or if more complicated, a pediatric cardiologist. Some heart birth defects actually disappear with age. Some are permanent, but harmless. Others require more intense therapy or even surgery.Your doctor can guide you.

Answer 3

Educate yourself: Because there is a wide range of heart defects, the best thing you can do to manage your child's defect is to learn as much about it as possible. Your child's pediatric cardiologist can inform you about what to look for as signs that your baby may be having more trouble and may need to see the doctor. Learn about the baby's medications, and if surgery is needed learn about it before it happens.

Answer 4

Develop a logbook: One of the best things one of my patients mom's did over the years was develop a log book.In it she always had detailed information about each physician involved in her daughters care.There were updated schematics of what the heart defect was, and what shunt/repairs were in place. There were med lists and when started/stopped. The other data was always quite helpful when I needed to review it.

Answer 5

All of the above: The answers you have received are very helpful. The specific care depends on the heart condition your child has; I would leave that to your child's cardiologist. But educating yourself and creating a log book can be especially helpful.

Answer 6

Usually ultrasound : Or cat scan or mri.

Answer 7

Good luck trying: The balanced diet is an adult idea, & a good one to practice for your lifetime.However it is a bit impractical when you deal with kids. Breast milk is balanced, but get past weaning & you must deal with a kid with his/her own ideas about eating. I like to look on kids from the vantage point of a balanced week rather than meal or day. Before school age their brain directs their cravings & does ok.

Answer 8

PREGNANCY TERM: As long as you are under the care of your ob, no toxemia, or any other problems anticipated, you are in good hands! good luck !

Answer 9

Hard to say: Since your other health issues are not available for review, limited assessment is possible. Baby is near term, but upwards of 10% will require special care even if born at term. Complications of pregnancy or labor can increase the risk.About 5% of newborns have an unexpected issue at birth (defect, prematurity, illness).Most pregnancies end up in a satisfactory outcome.

Answer 10

No: A simple pulmonary function test is not an exercise test requiring running or biking. It is just recording breathing volumes during normal breathing and forced expiration.

Answer 11

No: In more than 30 years of pulmonary medicine i've never heard of a heart attack occurring during pulmonary function tests.

Answer 12

Highly unlikely!: I have never heard of implants impairing a physicians ability to evaluate a cardiac murmur under normal conditions.

Answer 13

No: There should be no interference.

Answer 14

Rarely: If the implants are really large and your murmur very quiet it might be possible, but this one is very unlikely.. :).

Answer 15

Unlikely.: Good question but i think it would be very unlikely that breast implants would interfere with detection of a heart murmur.

Answer 16

No: Interesting and good question. While it makes sense to think that the implants could interfere with heart auscultation it is not likely as the implants are highly mobile and if needed they can be displaced enough to listen to all hear sounds. Good question though.

how do i help manage my child's heart birth defect?

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