2yr old having a ECG tomorrow due to heat murmur

[Plumsieinaonesie]

Went to GP today due to fatigue and out of sorts in 2yr old DS (childminder notice it too) tried to get wee sample to rule out sugar and infection, he wasn't having any of that!!!

Gp then took temp and looked in ears a bit pink, glands up, then listen to his heart spent a while listerning to it which we thought was a bit strange then she said she could hear a heart murmur and that him having a ECG would be a good idea but could not do it there.

She then phone local hospital for advice and they asked us to come in tomorrow for this ECG.

Any advice or experiences of this.

[Ilovecake1]

Hi, I hope you are ok...my daughter had one done when she was 3 yrs, it all went really well. I was able to sit on the bed with her and didn't get distressed about it at all. If I remember correctly they put gel on something similar to when you have a pregnancy scan and the consultant thoroughly checked her chest area. From start to finish it took about 30 mins and best news of all was that she was completely fine. I really hope all goes well tomorrow and your LO gets the all clear. Big hugs! X

[AMumInScotland]

DS had one when a murmur was heard at his 3 year check. It was a lot like the pregnancy ones. The person who was doing the scan wasn't the consultant, so we didn't get the results straight away - he made a video for the consultant to watch later, although he did say that he hadn't seen anything to worry about but in a "don't quote me on that" kind of way.

FWIW most murmurs at that age are innocent - just bit of noise in the system, and not caused by anything untoward. They do tend to send you in for the tests pretty quick, just in case, which is always scary, but not in itself cause for alarm. HTH

[Acekicker]

DS heartmurmur was picked up by the MB students during their exams (he was being a pretend patient) . An extremely senior consultant listened there and then referred us for an ECG even though he was pretty damn sure it was innocent. Sure enough the ECG was totally fine. Given the circumstances in which we found out we got the red carpet treatment and incredibly detailed explanations as to why it was nothing to worry about etc. In essence an innocent heart murmur is just noise - the analogy we got was that all the pipes and plumbing in your house are totally 100% fine but when you run one of the taps the sound of the water in the pipes is particularly noisy - there's nothing wrong with the flow of water, the pipes are all in great nick but it just gets loud! We were also reassured that it has no impact on health, fitness, ability to charge about, fight off illnesses etc.

The ECG was totally fine, we got seen at a paeds unit so they had pretty pictures moving on the walls etc and DS just lay there transfixed. It is like an ultrasound in that they just move a camera over the heart and keep pressing buttons etc to change the view. It may be worth taking distractions with you and being prepared to hold a wriggly child but it's nothing to worry about.

You'll hopefully find out more today but for now do try not to worry. GPs do react quickly to things involving kids and hearts I suspect just to be on the safe side. There's every chance that your DS has just been tired because of a virus etc and it's got nothing to do with his heart. The GP may have just been listening for a long time to try to get a good listen to the murmur - DS wasn't picked up during any of his many GP visits as a small child, it was only when we got the ultra cautious medical students who were entirely focussed on a cardio work up that it got picked up. Even now GPs don't always hear it although if we mention it they will then have another go and pick it up sometimes.

[Plumsieinaonesie]

Thanks for the replies DS was very good, was interested in what was going on so iPad was not need.

The Dr could hear that there was a irregular heart beat every 5 beats and the ECG confirm this, consulted with a local childrens heart hospital and they seem to think that it was ok and they wanted to see the read out which was going to be faxed.

We would then receive a follow up appointment in 2 mths to check
Everything is ok still.

[digerd]

My heart murmer was supected with the ECG, but I then had an echocardiogram to confirm and get more detailed info, which is like an ultrasound with gel on the chest area.

[1978andallthat]

Dd not had ECG but we have found a whole pack of chocolate buttons a great help for other procedures she's had to have