Heart murmur - 6 week check?

[worriedaunt]

Hi,

My 6 week old nephew had his 6 week check this week. His GP picked up a heart murmur. He was explaining to my sister that it was due to a hole either in the heart or in a nearby artery.

(He went on to explain that there were two holes in the heart when the baby is newborn - one closes within 24 hours usually and the other hole closes within a week. He said he thought that one of these holes had not probably not closed properly).

He's referred my nephew to a specialist, he'll probably have an appointment in 6 weeks.

Reading around on the internet last night, it seems that heart murmurs in babies are quite common and usually go away by themselves or on further investigation have an innocent cause.

My question is - using just a stethoscope in the GP surgery, can the doctor actually tell that it is due to a hole in the heart or could he just offering a possible explanation?

Reading around the subject last night on the internet gave some re-assurance that it is quite common and often not a problem, but my sister now thinks that my nephew has a hole in his heart and is worried.

Would be glad of some advice, my nephew is very healthy in himself - he has a lovely pink colour (not blue at all), happy, gaining weight and feeding well.

Thanks so much for reading.

my ds was the same and the murmur was gone by the time he was 6 months. (his murmur was picked up just after birth)

Thank you seona, that's reassuring, you must have been relieved.

My dd had murmur picked up soon after birth. In her case it is a hole between the 2 pumping chambers of the heart (ventricular septal defect). Doctors were quite sure this was the cause by just listening with the stethoscope but it was later confirmed by using an echo scan of the heart.

Like your nephew, my dd has not had any problems and never turned blue. She is 9 months now and doing well.

Murmurs are common in babies and young children. Many of them will sort themselves out and not need treatment. It is important though for them to be checked and monitored just to make sure as in a few cases further action may be needed at some point.

My dd's hole is not likely to close on it's own because it is in a slightly 'difficult' location. Most VSD holes do close by themselves but because of the location of my dd's it is likely she will have to have it closed. Unless there are any problems they are going to leave this until she is much bigger and it can then be done by a minor procedure.

There are murmurs which can be found in more serious conditions but these should have shown themselves before the 6 week check with problems such as blue colour and breathlessness.

Your sister should not worry too much (easier said than done I know!) because without any problems/symptoms it is very likely to turn out to be an innocent cause.

Thank you cup of coffee, I am glad your daughter is doing well and hope everything goes smoothly in the future.

Thank you also for answering my question regarding the diagnosis with the stethoscope. I wasn't sure if he could tell the probable cause or not just by listening.

I'll show my sister this thread later. I think when you go for the 6 week check you just assume everything is going to be ok unless you have previous problems. I think she was a little bit shocked when the GP told her the news and I guess you don't have much information to ask the relevant questions.

Thanks so much.

Hi, at my twins' six week check one of them had what the dr probably thought 'could be' a heart murmur. This was found using a stethoscope.

We had to take dd to the hospital about a month later (I think - twins are now 5 so it was a while ago!) and by then there was nothing there and the consultant said she was fine.

Hope all goes well with your nephew.

Thank you Pandsbear, I am glad your twins are both well.

heart murmurs can be innocent murmurs, they are not always due to holes in the heart.
i have had a heart murmur all my life and i am now 54.....i do alot of sport and it has never given me a problem...just an odd heart beat occasionally

DS1 was 18months when his innocent heart murmur was picked up.
Of course I panicked at the time, but it has neve been an issue, in fact we had forgotten all about it until he recently had to have some dental surgery, where apparently he may have to have some anti biotics.

Tell your sis not to worry too much.

PS DS1 is 10 now and just bee made captain of the school rugby team and plays rugby for the county

sixty....my dentist has said that prophylactic treatment with antibiotics at the dentist is now supposed to be stopped as it helps to cause antibiotic resistance and if it is an innocent murmur ,it is not needed.check with your dentist.

thanks aly paly
he is due to have his op in January
its not a straightforward extraction needds general anaesthetic

they will probably give him them as he is having an extraction in hospital

I have a heart murmur which was picked up when I was a baby. It has never affected me at all. When I was pregnant with dc1 I was referred to a cardiologist and had some tests done, but he said it would not affect my pregnancy at all. I have had 3 dc, absolutely straighforward pregnancies.

Please tell your sister not to worry

I feel for your sister. This happened to me with dd2 and it was very alarming. It upset me for a long time actually - took about 5 or 6 years to let go of the fear tbh. Like your nephew dd2 was and is perfectly healthy. After the initial GP finding we went to the hospital for an ECG and an echo then saw the cardiac consultant. Dd's murmur is caused by mild pulmonary stenosis - her pulmonary valve is slightly narrowed. This is the second most common congenital defect - VSD as mentioned below is the most common. It wont go away but her heart is fine and at the moment it's unlikely she will need intervention. If she did my understanding is that it wouldn't be a major thing. She is nearly 10 and is absolutely 100%.
I think heart things are very scary though. In dd's case it was right after the Bristol heart babies scandal and all I could think about was those poor parents who had been told everything would be ok - and it wasn't. It took me a long time to let go of that. Like your sister I took her for a check expecting everything was fine. The doctor was reassuring - but I went home and cried. Feeding and gaining weight are excellent signs - babies who have poorly hearts don't thrive well.
In terms of your specfic question - dd2 once participated in medical exams at our local hospital. All the candidates examined her and listened with the stethoscope. Of the 6 we saw 1 got her diagnosis bang on from the sounds they heard, 1 mentioned it but thought it was a VSD and the other 4 were totally wrong! So I think it's hard to know exactly but her GP has made their best guess at it ased on the clinical signs - baby is fine - and liklihood - VSD as I've said the most common problem. If it is pulmonary stenosis btw point her in my direction. I'm Northerlurker when it isn't Halloween!

Wow lots of replies since I checked yesterday! Thank you Alypaly, Sixfoot, VerityBrulee and Northernlurker.

Alypaly and Verityblue - reassuring to hear that you live good lives even with a heart murmur.

Sixtyfoot, glad that your son is healthy and doing well! Hope the tooth op goes well- ouch!

Northernlurker, glad your daughter is doing well now and sorry that you were upset for so long. It's hard not to worry though when it's your child though. Thank you for the information about the medical exams - that's interesting how different doctors interpret the sounds. I guess we'll only have a proper answer when he has further tests.

Thank you all so much.

My daughter had a heart murmur picked up at her 6 week check. The following day the hospital called with a date to see a consultant. She had lost her birth weight and not regained it (womething she did not do for many months).

I can recommend a fantastic website which offers invaluable support by other parents, families of heart children called "heartline" they were a complete lifeline for us when we found out. I woudl recommend you have a look at it.

Needless to say there are many different types of heart murmurs, the fact she is not blue and is eating is a good sign. The doctors will have a good look at her. They are likely to do an echocardiogram (ultrasound of the heart) which will tell them precisely where the hole is and what this means. I understand the stethoscope picks up the murmur. Our consultant was able to get an indication of what type of murmur she had and was right whenwe had the echo carried out.

Do let us know how it goes

Thank you Mummygogo, I will tell my sister about the heartline website. How is your daughter now? - I hope she is well.

Hi - Could I just ask another couple of questions please?

Is it worth going private to get a diagnosis quickly or is it worth waiting the NHS wait time to give the problem a chance to perhaps resolve itself?

Does anyone know how much it would cost (approximately) to get a diagnosis via private health care, there's no health insurance so we would have to pay with cash?

(I know that when my husband had a nerve problem recently it cost about £160ish for a consultation and it was about £460ish for an MRI scan- I think it cost about £1000ish in total to get a diagnosis, but he had insurance - not sure would it be about the same sort of ballpark figure?)

Thank you.

Hi
My dd was born with a grade 3 systollic heart murmur. Caused by a PFO and a VSD. She was born with other medical problems too..Generally when babies are asymptomatic they don't rush the ecg's and heart checks. I was told by DDs consultants this is mainly because it's more viable to do them at 3 months old as many "holes in heart" close by themselves. They get a more realistic view.
At DDs 3 month check she still had 2 holes in her heart but were both smaller than 6mm. By 8 months one was gone and the other is now 3mm and seems to be closing on it's own.

DD is now 10 months still with a small vsd but has undergone about 9 ops (not to do with her heart) and been fine from a cardiac point.

She was seen at the royal brompton and they re assured me that it's very common and sometimes undetected in newborns.. In fact had my dd not have had other health problems they may not have even picked up on the murmur.

If it was me I would wait for the appointment if the baby is healthy and just watch out for symptoms. Through all dds problems they saw the pfo/vsd as the least urgent. While I sat there panicking. They said even if the holes didn't close it wouldn't effect her quality of life at all. I understand every baby is different, but it did re assure me how common this is amongst new borns.

Good luck to you all xx

I would wait for the nhs. Te wait shouldn't be long I think they have to be seen within 6 weeks of gp referral.

ds has an innocent murmur. picked upon when he was 11mo due to him being unwell. He had an echo and ecg at the hospital and seen by cardiologist.

Like your sister I was worried but he had no other symptoms and he's now 5 with no problems from it. Finger crossed your nephew's is also benign.

Thank you Sugarbea and Nellieisstilltired, sorry it's taken me a while to reply - I didn't see the two new replies.

Sugarbea - thank you for the re-assurance regarding the vsd - I hope your daughter is well now and her health problems don't affect her too much. Must be horrible to have seen her go through all those ops .

Nellie - glad your son is ok with no problems from the murmur.

I think they are going to wait for the NHS appointment, hopefully won't be too long. My nephew seems to be thriving so that's good.

DD2 had this picked up at 6 week check. As your research has shown it is very common. On the day DD2 was seen for 6 week check she was the 5th baby of the day to have a murmur detected.

She was referred to hospital and we got a letter about a week later to make an appointment and were given a date about 1 week after that so she was seen fairly soon after the initial check with doctor.

At the hospital they did an ultrasound and said that everything was normal and discharged her.

The fact that he is thriving is an excellent sign. The consultant said signs that there may be a problem are babies going blue when feeding and poor weight gain.

Hope he gets an appointment soon.

Thank you MrsAlwaysRight. Glad your daughter was found to have a normal heart after her ultrasound. It must have been a relief.

My DD's hole in the heart was picked up when she had surgery (entirely unrelated) at four months.

They kept an eye on her for a while, but she has been completely unaffected by it.

Her's was not classed as an innocent murmur, however, it has done her no harm either.

Hope that helps.

It's been a long time since I started this thread.

Anyway, my nephew had an appointment at the hospital yesterday where they checked his heart out.

The consultant could not find any problem, the hole must have healed in this time. Everyone in the family is very relieved.

Many thanks for all your support, it really helped to put our minds at rest at a time when we were really worried.

Thank you.