Heart failure in a child: how to identify symptoms of a threatening illness in a timely manner

Most of the diseases occur most difficult and threatens the most severe consequences, appearing in children.

Their body still does not receive the necessary resistance to disease, and the detection of symptoms can be complicated.

Therefore, it is so important to monitor the state of the child and carefully treat any alarms. Further in the article is very necessary and important information about what are the symptoms and treatment of heart failure in children.

General information

Cardiac failure in children is associated with a decrease in the contractility of the myocardium( cardiac muscle).

Untimely identified heart failure is a serious threat to the life of your child. Therefore, we will understand the causes and symptoms of the disease.

Causes of development and risk factors

Causes of the disease almost do not differ in children of different ages:

• congenital heart disease;
• the transferred trauma, operation on heart or a serious infectious disease;
• myocarditis;
• diseases of the lungs, kidneys, rheumatism;
• Other heart and vascular disease.

The probability of the disease is especially high in the following cases:

• the child has a bad heredity( there were heart problems in one or both parents);
• the baby has ischemic disease;
• the child suffers from chronic arrhythmia or hypertension.

Classification: degrees of disease

In children and adults , there are two stages of heart failure in children - chronic and acute .The second is a complication and is associated with a sharp increase in symptoms, in which pathology can no longer be overlooked.

In the first case, there are problems with filling the heart with blood, in the second - with a decrease in its contractility and insufficient release of blood.

Also, heart failure is divided into left ventricular, or cardiopulmonary, in which the lungs entering the small circle of the circulation, and the right ventricle, which affects the liver and kidneys, are under attack. Cough and labored breathing are typical for the first type, swelling and problems with the spleen - for the second .

There are four stages of the disease:

• On the first symptoms remain almost invisible, physical activity causes considerable fatigue and shortness of breath, the child tries to avoid active games.
• In the second stage, the heart rate accelerates, the rate of respiration increases with the left ventricular type, or the liver begins to bulge from beneath the lower rib a few centimeters.
• The third stage is characterized by a heart rate accelerated up to one and a half times, dyspnea, coughing and wheezing in the lungs or protrusion of the liver together with a noticeable increase in the cervical veins.
• The worst of the symptoms of the fourth stage is pulmonary edema or general puffiness of the body, depending on the type of disease.

Symptoms

Symptoms that can identify a disease depend on age. It is characteristic that in the early stages it is almost impossible to identify them, let alone connect them with heart failure. They are not visible from the outside and do not distract the attention of the child. However, gradually the symptoms manifest themselves more and more and become a constant factor, greatly reducing the quality of life. Babies about the disease say:

• anxiety;
• tearfulness;
• uneven breathing;
• sweating;
• rapid loss of interest in the breast during feeding;
• regurgitation;
• restless sleep.

The detection of the disease is simplified with age. Attract parents' attention:

• unusually low mobility, holding a large amount of time sitting or lying down;
• shortness of breath, not only appears with physical activity, but also with time becomes a constant companion;
• cough and rales;
• dizziness;
• painful sensations behind the sternum;
• pallor of the skin;
• syncope;
• blueness of the lips or fingers;
• easy fatigue;
• darkening in the eyes, black "flies" in front of them;
• disorders in the work of the stomach and intestines, nausea and vomiting;
• swelling of the cervical veins and swelling of the lower half of the body are possible - signs of a late stage of heart failure.

In children, the disease is treated exclusively in the inpatient setting of , and the sooner the doctor examines the child, the higher the chances of successful treatment without complications.

Emergence of anxiety signals: to which doctor to contact

Often parents turn to a pediatrician or an ENT because of cough and shortness of breath, and the real cause of problems is revealed already in the doctor's office.

Another option is self-detection of symptoms and treatment to the pediatrician.

In any case, in the end, the child must get on an appointment with a cardiologist who confirms or excludes the disease.

A cardiac insufficiency can also be observed during examination by other specialists with the following diagnostic methods:

• Manual examination, or auscultation, when the doctor probes the abdominal cavity of the patient. This method allows you to identify the increase in suffering from internal diseases.
• Measure blood pressure and heart rate.
• A chest X-ray, during which you can notice a too large size of the heart or accumulated in the lung fluid.
• ECG, echocardiogram or tomography.
• Delivery of a blood test.

Diagnosis: how to recognize by deviations in the results of the

examination. The cardiologist is engaged in clarifying the diagnosis, the stage of heart failure and the appointment of treatment. Necessary survey methods include:

• ECG;
• Echocardiography;
• tomography;
• chest X-ray;
• blood test;
• daily wearing of the Doppler monitor, which removes the cardiogram and shows the full picture of the heartbeats.

See a video in which a cardiologist will tell you about heart disease:

Treatment of

The effectiveness and timing of getting rid of a disease depend on the timeliness of the problem. An obligatory companion of drug therapy is the bed rest of , excluding the burden on the heart.

Therapy is conducted in the following directions:

• Stimulation of the ability of the heart muscle to contract: for this, the patient is given cardiac glycosides( for example, digoxin).
  

  The medication is started to be injected as intravenous injections, eventually switching to tablets.

• Reduction of cardiac activity: taking diuretics( eg, ureitis) allows you to get rid of edema of the body and internal organs.
• ACE inhibitors act with the first two groups of drugs, allowing them to gradually reduce their dosage while maintaining a high effect.
• Similar functions are performed by beta-adrenoblockers.
• At the same time, they conduct therapy for concomitant diseases and treat other affected organs.

The entire course of treatment takes place under stationary conditions. It is superfluous to remind, that reception of medicines should strictly correspond to instructions of the attending physician and it is supervised by it.

A good additional treatment( is an additional! ) is traditional medicine.

Diet and lifestyle

What kind of diet for heart failure should a child have? Diet is one of the most important factors of rehabilitation and must comply with the recommendations of the doctor after discharge.

You need to eat lots of fresh fruits and dairy products. Food should contain a significant amount of potassium and a small amount of salt , in order to avoid swelling. It is recommended to salt food not at the cooking stage, but during the feeding to the table.

Physical activity should be appropriate for the child.

Those who had heart failure of the first degree showed aerobic exercise, walking( walking in the summer and skiing in winter).

Usually, they are exempt from physical training or transferred to a special group.

After the disease of the second degree to fast walking and running it is necessary to be treated very carefully, and after the third, walks in the sitting position are preferable.

Prevention measures

Never prevent heart failure in children( or insure against the return of the disease) will help preventive measures. It is not difficult to observe them, but it will help to make the child's life healthy, and his health is consistently remarkable:

• & gt; Physical activity. Even moderate sports( walking to the school or climbing the stairs instead of the elevator) significantly reduce the risk of heart failure.



• Proper nutrition .Eliminating excess salt, spices and fatty foods, along with a sufficient number of minerals, vitamins and amino acids - is the key to health for many years.
• Body weight control .Often, parents make offspring a disservice to the offspring, making sure that they are always full.
  

  It is worth listening to the child when he claims to be full, and not to accustom to excessive amounts of fatty foods, pastries and sweets.

• Rest .The number of study assignments and additional circles should be commensurate with the abilities of children. Also, do not let them get used to sacrificing sleep in favor of computer games.
• Strong risk factor is the stress of , so the exclusion of nervous situations will positively affect the health of the offspring.

What are the predictions for the treatment of heart failure in children? In most cases, timely medical intervention and accurate adherence to the recommendations of doctors can effectively eliminate the symptoms of the disease.

And in conclusion there is still a lot of useful information about cardiovascular insufficiency( acute and chronic) and other heart diseases in children: