I am guessing circulation problem...?

[Idobelieveinfairies]

My son who is now 10 has always turned blue when cold since he was little, you know in a paddling pool, at the public pools, cold day playing footie. It's his lips, and cheeks. It takes about an hour once he is changed/ come inside for him to turn pink again.

When it snowed (for about an hour) he went out with 2 pairs gloves on, but came in 10 mins later screaming in pain with his fingers, chilblaines i pressumed.

I was told by hv..when little, that this can be quite common in little ones and its something he will outgrow.

Well he still gets it and we get lots of worried people asking me about it. Wondering now whether he needs to be properly checked out with g.p. Or is this just something that people have without there being a medical problem?

He is going on a school trip in a couple of months to France, and i am sure it will involve pools and hoses so am getting a bit worried about him being away and this happening.

He did have a big op when he was 2 at guy's so i am guessing if there was anything wrong then they would have picked it up on all his tests wouldn't they?

Just looking for anyones experiences really,

thanks!

Does he have a heart murmur? Has anyone ever checked? I used to turn blue when cold and during exertion and was diagnosed at 1 with a ventrical septal defect (heart murmur). It's not caused me any problems - except in pregnancy and that's hardly going to trouble your son - but it's worth knowing about in case he has surgery - he'd need antibiotics.

How is his capillary response (take his hand, press on a finger till it pales and then see how quickly it comes back to colour compared with your finger)?

well this is what i was reading about-but he did have a kidney op when he was 2 at guy's and i was thinking they would have done big checks on him then and would have found this if there had been one??

Heart mumours don't just occur do they?

He doesn't turn blue with excercise....he goes totally opposite and has the biggest red face/rash and sweat poring off him. It dosen't bother him apart from the teachers trying to get himk to sit out and take a rest! He is very fit with all his football so its nothing to do with being unfit.

I will try the nail test you mentioned when he gets back ( he is at football!)

i am guessing your mum got you checked out because of the blue thing then?...god i feel like a horrid mother now. i was expecting him to just out-grow it.

thanks

Please don't feel like a horrid mother, you were told that he would outgrow it and it's nothing to worry about.

I don't have any real advice for you, other than, maybe get the gp to have a look at him to check him over.

Good luck.

I think if it's painful when he's cold then more likely to be something like Raynaurds.

The tongue is the best indication if you're checking for heart-related blueness although I would say he'd be blue on exertion too if he had a heart problem; although not all heart problems cause blueness IYSWIM.

It sounds like something i have, although i didn't develop it until mid-teens.
I was on holiday in a hot country when somebody first noticed my redness. She was a doctor and pressed on my red areas, then told me to speak to my GP when i got back.
I saw my GP and she said i had Raynauds syndrome. I was told there wasn't much i could do and no cure, so i left it at that.
Recently i doubted i had Raynauds, as i react much more in warm/hot conditons, eventhough i may go blue/purple when cold, so saw my GP (now with another GP) who referred me for tests.
Conclusion is i have some sort of sensitve blood flow/capillary condition, but it's not a medical condition .. it's something i have to live with.

Gosh, i have never heard of anything like that breadgirl...........do you feel any sort of discomfort with the hottness?

Will definately take him to the g.p. But will look up the raynaulds syndrome aswell.

Thanks for you replies.

Yes. with the hotness i do feel uncomfortable. I tend to swell and get a red face, hands and feet .. depending on how hot it is. I also get it if i exert myself.
When i get cold it takes much longer to warm up and for normal colour to come back.

I don't know anyone else who has this either .. nobody else in my family has it.

Am sorry to hear that breadgirl, is their nothing at all that they can do to help you with it? Is it getting any worse as you get older?

My son dosn't seem to be in any discomfort with the hotness, he just looks very very red and it takes about an hour for him to get back to his normal skin tone. With having 3 boys of a similar age to him, who are with him when playing football/ at the pools and for the same amount of time i know it isn't quite right as they don't ever have the blue/red thing going on.

info here my DDs have raynauds and so do I. It is very common (and hereditary), sometimes it can make you very hot after excercise too. I also have a heart murmour but that has never had any effect on me.

Thanks bigbadmouse, i have just had a quick look, i have never noticed my sons fingers turning blue etc in the cold apart from this one time with the snow-but he had been making snow balls, but the level of pain was horrendous for him once he was in. Does raynaulds tend to get worse as you get older?

Probably nothing connected here but when we were at the beach last summer he touched some shells on the beach that had been sitting in the sun. They were a bit hot to touch but not burning hot. My son started screaming with pain in his finger tips where he had touched the shells. We took him straight to A&E (lucklily just up the road from the beach and where we live) by the time we had got there small white blisters had come up on the tips of his fingers. They cooled his fingers in tepid water and gave him pain relief but they didn't have a clue what/why this had happened to him. We took him home and the blisters started fading. There were no marks, loose skin (as in popped blisters) or anything left on his fingers-it was as if nothing had happened. It was quite bizarre! Probably very un-related?

It should get better as you get older but tbh I don't think that follows until you are post teenage or in your 20s. I could play in thr snow when I was 3 or 4 (in Scotland) but I remember getting bad chilblains aged 10 from doing the same. It is very painful - especially when the blood starts to flow back. My DDs tend to get blue lips and other odd parts like their thighs - not just fingers. When DD1 was tiny, if I put her on a changemat without a towel on it she would turn blue on one leg and an arm - very concerning with your pfb! When I put my two in a warm bath their feet go very red - thats a common sign of raynauds (but I haven't sen it mentioned on the link I gave)

I would say you should get it checked out just to be sure. Raynauds doesn't always follow a typical pattern (my fingers go white very quickly but rarely blue) and I think you'd be best off getting other things ruled out.

No idea about the shell thing

i will definately investigate moer and get him to the doctor.

How would they diagnose raynaulds without him actually having a temperature change? would it be blood test?

The hot shells incident is quite strange.
Whatever i have, it doesn't seem to be getting worse.
Like your son, my youngest will run around and get a very red face, even more so if it's hot .. and people have commented on how red her face is! She will have sweat dripping off her face. She doesn't seem to react in cold weather.
I worry and feel sad that she has inherited something like what i have.
Maybe have a chat with your GP and see if they will give him some tests?

BigBadMouse, from reading Raynauds info i thought i didn't have it since they mostly mention the cold, blue and white hands, and pain, which i don't get. It doesn't mention the redness. So it's interesting what you say about very red feet in a warm bath. I always get that! Hmm ..

Hmmmmm...well whatever causes what you have would be vascular I'd say - so similar to raynauds.