Heart Murmur in Children - Is It Common?

In fact, heart murmur in children is a very common thing to happen. In case your child has no birth defects such as Down Syndrome or some other genetic abnormalities and he or she is not exposed to alcohol or drugs while you are pregnant, there is absolutely no need to worry if the child develops heart murmur. You can rest assure that it will cause no other health problems for the child..
The first thing to do in such a situation is to identify its type. Keep in mind that being well informed about the condition will certainly help both your child and you. So make sure to gather every possible bit of information on the subject. Irrespective of the particular type of heart murmur your child has developed, do a thorough research on the subject and find out all you possibly can. Without any doubt, this information will come very handy to you regarding the various treatment options for heart murmurs. Keep in mind that the heart murmur does not mean a death sentence.
In case the murmur which your child has is indeed a serious condition, he or she will be referred to a cardiac specialist for sure who will evaluate your child's condition further. He will take the necessary measures to decide the degree of heart damage already happened and what type of treatment will be the best to adapt in the present condition.
There are generally two different types. They are classified as innocent and abnormal. In the case of innocent murmur, there is really very little to be concerned about because most of these children will grow out of it and so these types of murmurs are not considered as a health risk.
The second type, known as abnormal heart murmur mostly happens due to some defect in the structure of the heart such as a hole present in the heart at birth. In case such defects are serious enough to cause backing up of blood in the heart, the child may show difficulty while fed from a bottle continuously. The child will have to stop to breathe in between. Also, a bluish tint can be found in the child's lips, and he or she may show an inability to grow.
Generally, in order to determine how bad a child's murmur is, the cardiac specialist may classify it in various ways. Initially, the murmur is ranked on a scale of 1 to 6 for its loudness or intensity. A Grade 1 heart murmur will be very low in loudness so that they will be really very difficult to hear. On the other hand, a grade 6 heart murmur will be really loud and easily audible. Another classification of the heart murmur will be based on whether they are blowing, soft or harsh having high-frequency. Yet another classification is based on the location on the chest where the murmur can be best heard. This will be evaluated along with the information such as where the heart murmur is heard in a particular heart beat cycle.
In case your child has been diagnosed to have an abnormal murmur that is due to a valve defect or due to a hole in their heart which was present at birth, surgery is the most probably recommended solution to repair such a defect. Medications may also be prescribed in order to control and alleviate the symptoms present.