Heart murmur

[Gillyan]

Hi, my DD had a chest infection recently and when I took her to see the GP they heard a heart murmur. They said it could be related to the chest infection and to take her back when she was well. I've since been back after 2 wks and she still had chest inf so was given different antibiotics and the murmur was still heard. I've read up about 'innocent' murmurs and other types, she has no other symptoms that im aware of, but just wondered if anyone had any experience of this?

DS had an innocent murmur that was only noticed at his 3yo checks. If your DD has been a healthy child up till now, growing normally, plenty of energy etc, then I'd say it's almost certainly going to be an innocent one, whether it goes away after the infection clears or is an ongoing one.

They may well want to check it out if it doesn't go once her infection has cleared up - DS had a blood test, a chest xray and then an ultrasound before they decided it was innocent and nothing to worry about. Which was obviously a bit worrying at the time, but they have to check these things out in case it does happen to be the kind that needs some attention.

HTH

Innocent murmurs are pretty much just 'noisy blood flow' and are called innocent because there is nothing wrong with the heart. The analogy of pipes in a house holds here - in some houses/rooms you can hear the water in the pipes more noisily than in others, it doesn't mean the plumbing is broken/faulty/leaking it's just different sounding.

Innocent murmurs (my son has a flow murmur) are absolutely nothing to worry about. My son's was picked up by about-to-be-qualified-doctors when he was being a 'patient' for the final MB exams. They were examining cardio-thoracics and after the third one had presented and referenced the heart murmur I pulled the examiner to one side between students and said 'you do know that this is the first I've ever heard of a heart murmur don't you?' . The hospital pulled out all the stops and had him examined that day and sure enough he did have one - it's a 'flow murmur' and is literally just that his blood flows more noisily than in some other kids with healthy hearts.

He was given a full echo etc a week or so late to confirm that all was ok and it wasn't caused by anything more worrying. To be honest I was pretty happy that it wasn't, the boy had limitless energy and charged around without turning blue, getting out of breath etc like Amuminscotland says... I think the hospital just felt bad about the way I'd found out about it.

The trouble is anything with 'heart' sounds scary but innocent heart murmurs are very much not a big deal.

My dd2 has a murmur. In her case it is a congenital defect - her pulmonary valve is slightly narrowed. It has never caused her any symptoms and fingers crossed she will always remain well. 1 in 100 children will have some sort of heart defect. It is really common and if the child is otherwise well it's very unlikely to be problematic. How old is your dd?

Thank you for all the info. That's great. She is 5 and hf. The GP did say it could be to do with with being poorly or it could be she always had it and it's only just been picked up. I'm just anxious to find out if it's still there when she gets better. She had lots of chest infections when she was younger and it was never heard then. Thanks for putting my mind at ease, hope all your kids continue to be ok

I am 48 and had a heart murmur diagnosed at birth. It was investigated again when I was 21. It was explained to me as probably a rough patch which made the sound as the blood wooshed past. It has never caused me any problems.

My dd was diagnosed with a heart murmur at 4 months old, and then it was reconfirmed as still being there at 6 years old ie its still not disappeared, don't know if it ever will. I worry but the doctors have said its 'non-significant.' She successfully had 2 operations recently (on a separate medical problem) and the murmur didn't affect this. I think doctors can seem vague on murmurs but I just assume its because there is nothing to worry about.

My DD was diagnosed with an benign heart murmur when she was 5 - I'd taken her to the GP with an ear infection.
They asked if we wanted it checked out at the hospital so we did - ECG's and ultrasound checks, and it was all ok.
They said that these murmurs become more apparent when they are poorly or have an infection.
If you're worried, ask to have it checked out.

My son has an innocent murmur ( he was given an echo and ECG)and i was told these were quite common, i have a murmur but mine is because of a congenital mitral valve defect, i have got to the age of 48 and had 6 children with no problems so far .
If you are still worried please ask for her to be checked.

My son has a heart murmur. It is an "innocent" murmur which means it in no way effects the working of his heart at all (he had a heart scan when it was discovered to check all heart functioning).

Paediatrician said to us the only affect the heart murmur will have is that when doctors listen to his chest they will pick up the heart murmur, and we can explain we are aware.

If there is a murmur a heart scan is usually provided so you can be sure that the heart is working fine. My paed did also say that if baby is lively and putting on weight well then any problem that might be there is unlikely to be serious.

I have heart murmur, diagnosed when I was around 27, I have not suffered any problems with it. Always good idea to go get a scan though, for peace of mind.