Heart Disease

Congenital heart disease is a relatively common disease that occurs in one percent of newborns, or about 4,000 babies, every year. 25 to 30 percent out of them show complex heart defects with more than two heart diseases. Congenital heart disease is an unpreventable disorder. Without early detection and treatment, more than half of infants who develop the disease die within the first year of their lives. However, if the disorder is detected and treated early enough, more than 95 percent of them can be completely cured.

The major symptoms of newborns and infants with congenital heart disorder include cyanosis, difficulty in breathing, cardiac insufficiency, difficulty in breast-feeding, heart murmurs and so on. Cyanosis is a condition in which the lips, earlobes, fingers, and toes appear blue. In an extreme case, the entire body turns bluish.

Difficulty in breathing can be suspected when your baby breathes at a faster pace or the baby’s chest sinks in when it’s breathing. You have to be alarmed if your baby’s breathing count is more than 60 breaths per minute without any reason or a rattling sound is heard. Symptoms of cardiac insufficiency include swollen arms and legs, palpation of an enlarged liver, and a rapid pulse (more than 140 beats per minute). Also, a chest x-ray of a patient with cardiac inefficiency shows an enlarged heart.

Infants with heart disease get tired easily while breastfeeding because they are not strong enough to feed. Even if an infant feeds, it is still hard for the baby and in lots of cases, the baby falls asleep after feeding. Even if the infant remains awake, the baby gets fretful at intervals of 10 to 20 minutes. In this case, the baby gets hungry soon, but breastfeeding cannot be done smoothly because it is tough for the infant.

The timing and method of surgery is determined depending on the extent of deformity and when cyanosis and cardiac insufficiency appear. For babies with minor congenital heart defects, surgeries are recommended after infancy.