heart murmurs?

[burntcarmine]

Hi all,
Lucie is 18 mos and the doc just found a heart murmur... How much does this happen with hg babies? I am not sure if this is the right place to post this... still feeling a little confused on this new forum but any feed back would be great.
thanks,
christina

[emily]

I haven't really seen any correlation between HG and heart murmurs or any other effect for that matter. Not to say it isn't out there. I am the only person I know to have HG out of all the other mommies I know in my not online life, and their children have all sorts of different health issues and mine is 100% perfect health. And for that, I am very grateful. But, I think that doctors are just getting better at screening children for things and maybe that is why it seems like everyone's kids have health problems.

[aaronsmommy]

They heard a heart murmor on Aaron in the NICU, so they did an echo and he has a tiny VSD (hole between the lower chambers of his heart). He's had 2 echo's since then and on the second they actually thought it was gone, but it reappeared on the third. No-one has heard the murmor since the NICU, so I'm convinced that if he had never been in the NICU, we would never had known about it and he would be perfect (except for his little "failure to thrive" work-up this year, which I think is over because for the past 4 days he has been eating everything in sight!)
Is Lucie getting an echo? I hope it all comes out normal.

[burntcarmine]

I dont' know if she will have an echo... I am worried about her though, Aimee. She was an inch shorter at this visit which means they didn't measure her well last time but she certainly didnt' grow. Also, she started out above average and every check up she has gone down until now she is below average. She is also slow in all developmental areas. She understands everything we say but hardly talks at all, was so late in crawling and walking and seems like she really has a hard time talking. We tell her words and she looks so blank - like she understands and has no idea how to get the word out. I am trying not to worry but I am a bit.

We are making an appointment at children's hospital and we will see what the cardiologist says.

what does the hole in aarons heart mean? will he grow out of it? how does it affect him now and in he future?

[emily]

I posted this in another thread but my mom recently had surgery to "seal" a hole in heart. They found it about 12 years ago when she had a stroke at 32. Hm, 14 years, 16 years. How old am I? LOL Anyhow, it was arthroscopic, meaning they went in through a vein in her leg and they placed a small disc on her heart. This will cause scarring and seal off the hole. A pediactric surgeon did it because usually this is done in babies and small children. My mom was literall in and out in a few hours and back at yoga in a couple of days. She could not believe how great she felt because she hadn't been getting sufficient oxygen to her brain and she feels great now that she is actually getting blood!

[aaronsmommy]

I'll bet the cardiologist will do an echo, unless he feels that it is one of the normal murmors of childhood. Aaron needs antibiotics if he goes to the dentist, and that is about it. The cardiologist is assuming it will close on it's own, so we will go back once a year until it does I guess. If it really doesn't close, he may need surgery, but I'm not even considering that a possibility at this point. Some need surgery and some don't, it all depends on the type. Kim's Ainsley has a murmor and a heart defect too, they thought she was going to need surgery, but it dramatically improved and maybe she won't now.
I think the only thing I wasn't expecting from parenting is all the worry! Aaron was at the 50th percentile until about 6 months. Then he slowly started dropping on the curve. He actually lost weight between 12 and 15 months and had dropped off the curve completely. We've been stressing over every calorie the kid eats since, and we're really sick of it. The good news is that he has now been gaining, he is still well below the 5th percentile, but at least he isn't dropping any more. We're getting more comfortable with just thinking that this is just him and there is nothing wrong with it (Mike's already decided that he is going to be the weird short kid who likes bugs when he gets to school).
Language develpment is so strange, Aaron started babbling and got his first words so much later than the girls around here. I was supposed to make a hearing test appointment for him because he still wasn't babbling at 9 months. Now he has taken off, and he never shuts up. He waited until 16 months to say Mama, though. I'm sure Lucie just has her own timeline too, just to worry you.
There isn't much about my job around the board, I've been so busy, I'll get you a little update when I get a chance.

[Kschwintz]

Just catching up, finally!! CH- HOW ARE YOU!!!!!

Ainsley does have a heart murmur. We found at her first echo that she had an Atrial Septal Defect (hole between the atria of the heart), which was putting pressure on the pulmonary valve to the lungs (pulmonary stenosis), and her PDA did not close after birth... We were told she would have open heart surgery at age 1. At her 1 year echo (different pedi cardiologist), her PDA had closed, the PS had reversed itself and only a tiny hole remains.

It is absolutely frightening to hear "heart problems" in our babies. I would request an echo asap.

Take care and big HUGS!!

[jjbeck]

CH, Just wondering how Lucie is.

[IslandDreamer]

We had a scare at Christopher's 3 year well check up where a murmur was detected; at his one year, the doctor listened more than once. We were quickly shipped to Children's Hospital in Detroit for a full ultrasound of Christopher's heart; there's a parking ramp I prayed I wouldn't get to know. Thankfully, the doctors found nothing wrong with the his heart structures. Just an anomolous (sp) murmur.

Let us know how everything goes.

[Caurie]

I was a HG baby and still have a heart murmur to this day. My son was a HG baby and has no heart murmur.

[Caurie]

I was a HG baby and still have a heart murmur to this day. My son was a HG baby and has no heart murmur.

[Chedasha]

oh yeah at my ssiters 8 week checkup they detected a very slight (so they said) heart murmur on Connor. She had to take him for an xray and eco and she has to see the specialist I think thats soon. Have had to wait till he comes to this town. I sooo hope its nothing.

He is 3 months now and healthy as a horse in the growing and thriving sense.

Kat

[adelmaal]

I have not had any experience with heart murmers but I do have some experience with weight gain and loss. Both my children gained rapidly in the beginning and eventually started falling. My son went from off the charts to just on the low side of normal. From what I have read though, breastfed babies progress like that. They start off with rapid gain and then taper off. Formula fed babies are supposed to be opposite. Don't know if this plays into your scenario.