Texas Children's Hospital - 8 common signs of heart disease in infants and children

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Shine Magazine

8 common signs of heart disease in infants and children

Signs of heart disease vary by age group.

For infants, the greatest concern is congenital heart lesions. According to Dr. Michelle Ann Grenier, cardiologist at Texas Children’s Health Centers®–The Woodlands and assistant professor of Pediatric Cardiology at Baylor College of Medicine, “The problem with heart disease in infants is that they may appear entirely well and cannot vocalize complaints.”

Here, she offers eight of the more common signs of heart disease in infants.

Poor color. Skin tone appearing gray, pale, purple or blue. While most babies exhibit intermittent blueness of hands, lips and feet (known as acrocyanosis), cyanosis is a blue or purple color visible inside the mouth and over the core of the body and extremities (as well as the hands and feet).
Difficult or rapid breathing, consistently and all the time. (Babies often have “periodic breathing,” which is normal—they breathe quickly and then seem not to breathe at all.)
Noisy breathing (in babies with vascular rings and slings).
Sweating all over the body while feeding, even in a cool environment.
Poor feeding or refusal to eat on a consistent basis. Babies appear hungry and then refuse to eat.
Poor weight gain and height growth in spite of adequate feeding.
Inconsolability. When the child cries continuously in spite of all efforts to console, comfort or feed, it is time to speak with your physician about checking the heart. It may be nothing more than colic.
Recurrent respiratory infections or asthma symptoms.

For older children, a decrease in activity, recurrent respiratory infections or asthma, and poor growth or color may signal heart trouble.

For children of any age, fainting or chest pain due to exertion is worrisome. Chest pain is an unreliable symptom of heart trouble in children: Only 15 percent of all chest pain is caused by heart disease.

The most reliable indicator of heart disease is family history, including relatives who die before age 50, have cardiomyopathy (heart muscle disease) or require cardiac intervention at an early age.