Baby with SVT

[JaneBakLiv]

Are there any other parents with experience of SVT? My baby had SVT as he was born and was then in intensive care for 5 days where he had 4 more attacks. He is now 6 weeks old. We have to give him propanalol 3 times a day which can be difficult as sometimes we are having to wake him to give it to him and sometimes he sicks it back up. Just seen cardiologist who has dais just continue with medicine and review in 3 months. He said theres no cause he can pin point and the hope is he will grow out of it. I don't feel I would be able to tell if my baby were having another attack. I would appreciate any advice anyone has on coping with and treating SVT

Hi I haven't had much experience of SVT but will tell you my limited experience! Has the Dr told you what to do if he goes in SVT again? Did he advise hospital or to try and treat it yourself? Its quite obvious when a baby is in SVT as they become irratable, restless with poor feeding and quite often if you put your hand on their chest you can physically feel the heart beating away. Has anyone explained to you what a normal Heart rate for a baby is? Normal rate is between 100 ans 160 beats per min and a baby is thought to be in SVT if the HR is over 220/min. If it were me I would buy a stethoscope so I could have a listen to his heart rate if I thought he might be in SVT. practice listening to his HR when it is normal and you will soon learn when it is too fast normally when it is impossible to count because its so fast! I am a paeds nurse so have had some limited experience but hopefully someone with more experienced in this area will be along to help soon. Poor you doesn't sound like you've had much info or support

Hi I don't know if this will help but, My son age 5 has recently been diagnosed with SVT I'm not sure how long he has had it, I just didn't realize !
He has been prescribed a beta blocker and is currently under review with the cardiologist. He gets exhausted at school and at home but not all the time.
I find that giving him calpol helps when he is having an episode. It has taken almost three months for me to start to understand what is happening and it seems there is no cure. Hopefully further down the line he may grow out of it, There are stronger medicines he could take or surgery if it were worse when older.
For the time being we too just have to try to keep it under control. If he gets sick with a temperature then that's when he is likely to have a bad episode. I have an open door policy with my local hospital so if i am worried and feel that he needs monitoring I can call them and take him direct to the children s ward.
if you don't have that available already its worth asking for it.
Good luck with your little one x

Thanks for the replies. Our cardiologist said he could give us a stethoscope but he didn't recommend it because we would get obsessed with checking the heart rate. He said if we are worried that our baby might be having attacks to leave a message with his secretary and he will call us but that could take days I assume! I think I need to speak to the cardiologist again to ask a lot more questions!

Hi! I just found this thread and wanted to give you some of my experience. My daughter was born with SVT and spent 4 days in NICU with no further episodes. They sent us home with a stethoscope and told us to listen to her every diaper change but that they didn't think she would have SVT again. 3 days after going home we listened to her heart and couldn't count the beats, she was lethargic and incoherent, we were sent to the local children's hospital where we spent 3 weeks getting her to stay out of SVT and finding the right medication combo to help her stay in normal rhythm. She is now 9 months old and has been taking Propanolol 3 times daily and Amiodarone once daily since she was 4 weeks old, this was the only combo that worked for her. She still has occasional SVT episodes and her cardiologist has us keep a stethoscope at home and listen to her at least twice a day. It's a VERY good idea to have a stethoscope at home, if your cardiologist won't give you one you should look into buying a cheap on yourself, it's much safer than having to guess when your baby may be in SVT. Our daughter doesn't show ANY signs that she's in SVT, she's usually happy and giggly when we find that she is having an episode, so it's scary to think what it would be like around here if we did not have a stethoscope, I'm sure we wouldn't know she was in SVT until she was in heart failure. I'm surprised your Cardiologist won't let you have one for fear of becoming obsessed, what if your son doesn't show signs of being in SVT? Unlike your son, our daughter does have a diagnosis, it's called PJRT and it's not likely she'll outgrow it, she will most likely be on medications most of her childhood and her cardiologist is already planning to do a catheter ablation when she's 4 or 5 years old. I have her whole story on a blog that I keep updated, you are more than welcome to visit it and comment any time: www.thestoryofababywithsvt.blogspot.com

Hi, my son was also born with SVT and like you Roo we spent almost three weeks in NICU trying to get his SVT under control and he now takes Propanolol 3 times daily and Amiodarone once daily, we mix these in with milk and so far this has worked really well, so it could be worth a try. He's four months old now and has not had any episodes since leaving hospital, he's regularly seen by the consultant in hospital and has had a number of 24 hr ecg's. We too considered getting a stethoscope, however in the end decided against it, but I can't see that there is any harm in getting one we just decided it wasn't for us. We do occasionally listen to his heart beat by putting our head to his chest and that's enough for us.