Heart issues in primary age child

[Piggyhoolier]

DD had an incident a few weeks ago where her heart rate went through the roof even though she was at rest. It made her feel very unwell, her main complaint was that her throat felt funny. Since then it’s become apparent that she has this fairly regularly, especially when doing very minor activity such as going up a flight of stairs. She becomes breathless and her heart races. She thought this was normal and never mentioned it to anyone. She seems ok running about, but she tires easily. She is small for her age, petite and skinny. The rest of us are tall. People sometimes comment that she’s thin. She’s also very pale but as she’s fair skinned/light haired as per all our family this isn’t necessarily out of the ordinary. She eats plenty but never seems to grow much. She also runs hot I.e she susually wants to wear minimal clothes and sometimes her skin feels clammy. She has a fan in her room on all night even in winter.

Anyway she’s now waiting to see a cardiologist but the wait is several weeks so in the meantime I wondered if anyone had any similar experience they could share please? Do any of the things I mention seem like they could point to something or am I over worrying?

Did she go to A&E with the increased heart rate?

No, she saw a nurse who then asked her to see the GP who referred her to the cardiologist appointment that we’re waiting on. GP said if it was as bad as the day he saw her again we should go straight to A&E but it hasn’t been thankfully.

Oh ok. Just going from your post, an increased heart rate from exertion (like going up stairs) is normal but a sustained increase at rest is not and needs to be seen in A&E for monitoring. It will give them the best ideas of what the heart is doing at that moment in time.

Anaemia can also cause pale skin and breathlessness - what is her diet like? Does she drink lots of milk?

It could be SVT

I have this and first noticed it at that age.
I just thought it was normal so did not get it diagnosed until adulthood because I never told anyone!
Its just an electrical problem in your heart that means it suddenly will beat extremely fast for a short amount of time and then go back to normal. It can be made worse or set off by things like exertion or caffeine or certain foods... but can also have no obvious triggers at all and seem to occur at random.
Im not on medication for it because it doesnt occur that often, only once every couple of months and the episodes usually only last a few minutes. Some people have it far more often however and need to take medication.
Its not actually dangerous just uncomfortable and if it occurs regularly and for long periods can get in the way of day to day activities without medication.. Some people can have long episodes of it that dont stop naturally and so have to be shocked in hospital to get their heart to beat back at its normal rate.
Its not life threatening at all and has no impact on life expectancy etc...

Does her heart beat seem to go back to normal very suddenly or is it gradual like after exertion?
If it seems to stop and start suddenly and the heart beat is regular but just very fast, it very well may be SVT.

www.nhs.uk/conditions/supraventricular-tachycardia-svt/

Thanks for these replies by the way.

She eats/drinks a very good balanced diet. No reason to think she’s anaemic but I suppose she could be.

The SVT is interesting, I would say it does come on suddenly and then goes quickly again, no gradual slow down. She says she feels funny with it but that’s as specific as she’s been able to get, bit vague.

I initially wasn’t too worried, just thought yes there’s something not right but it’ll be minor, either doesn’t require treatment or just one to keep an eye on. But as times gone on I started to think maybe there’s more to it with her size/weight etc. But hopefully I’m just over thinking.