Very fast heart beat

[camaleon]

My 5 yo complains from time to time about her heart beat being too fast. It usually happens when she gets excited about something and I have always thought that it was a way of expressing herself. This is becoming more frequent.
Today, we were playing tickes and, as usual, she asked me to stop because her heart was going too fast. This time I put my ear against her chest and it was CRAZY! Very, very fast.

I will ask for an appointment with the doctor on Monday. But it was so abnormally fast that I am freaking out a bit (if you can freak out 'a bit' that is).

Would anybody knows what is this?

tickles not tickes...

Children's hearts do beat faster then adults. Especially when they are running around.

Does she ever complain of feeling dizzy/faint, turn white for example?

how fast is too fast did you count it?
children's heart rates are a lot faster than adults

Fast enough not to be able to count it is a good definition...
i am used to her heat rate... I like listening to her little heart beat sometimes, when she is sleeping. Her father does it often too. A thing that stayed with us since pregnancy. I almost lost her and we got so excited when we could hear that fantastic sound of her heart that we have kept listening to it from time to time... This is ridicously fast and although we were ttickling each other it was not excrutiating exercise

Tickling will get the heart beat raised fast. I have a six year old girl and when she is excited I can sometimes feel her heart beat and it's too fast to count - that is normal.

When they sleep at night time the body relaxes and the heart rate will be at it's slowest.

Are there any other health concerns - faintness, dizziness, pale in colour?

A high temperature can also raise heart beat.

220 - 6 would be the guild of the top end heart rate for your dc

So around 215 a minute which would be over three times a second - nearly 4

No other symptoms at all... thanks a million for all your answers - I have never worried before until I could hear/feel it today. will count next time if I can.

So you think it does not deserve visit to a GP if there is no other symptoms? I am not a big fan of wasting peoples time on panick attacks (mine, obviously)

Just to complete this thing of no symptons: she stops whatever she is doing until she recovers when it happens. She says the heart is going too fast and calms down until it slows down. I thought it was a bit of a 'drama queen' thing...

Again thank you. I got scared and surgery was close by the time it happened.

I think if she notices it and stops what she is doing it is worth getting checked out. A number of things can cause this which may need attention so better safe than sorry. I would always err on the side of caution although without stressing about it . GPs see an awful lot less exciting than this type of thing

I had an erratic heart beat when I was a child. I didn't know that it wasn't normal (if you see what I mean), until I was about 13. I'd had it for several years by then.

At first, the GP was sure that it was panic attacks. I knew that it wasn't, because I was always quite calm when I had this racing heart rate.

Finally, when I was 23 I was diagnosed with superventricular tachaecardia which isn't dangerous or life threatening, but is unpleasant and can affect day to day life.

When I was 29 I finally had a operation, under local anaesthetic to burn away the extra nerve circuit in my heart which was causing the problem.

I thinkk it's definitely worth getting it checked out. Incidentally, my heart rate didn't slow down when I relaxed - it would just suddenly stop on it's own, or when I did a particular breathing manoevure (sp).

I had the same with my DS. I was very concerned. My GP said if he was well and a good colour and no other problems not to worry, but as I suffer from anxiety did an ECG to put my mind at rest. She said everything was fine. She said to try to improve his fitness levels although he swims a lot, she said to push him harder. I have increased the intensity of his exercise and the problem has improved greatly.
GP also said if you compare a sleeping childs heart rate to a maximum normal heart rate during exercise it can be three times as fast.

Will get an appointment but I feel much calmer now. All answers have been very useful.
Good night. Have a great WE!

Yes definitely get a doctor's appointment. The chances are all is fine but as other posters have said in some unusual cases there can be a problem and it will put your mind at rest to get her checked out.