Your Health Now: Congenital heart disease

FORT MYERS, Fla.- For expecting parents, your biggest focus is to have a healthy baby.

Now, specialized physicians are detecting and treating issues like congenital heart disease earlier, to give babies that healthy start in life. Pediatric Cardiologist Dr. Eric eason joins us with more information.

General facts:

• Congenital heart defects affect nearly 1 percent of newborns, and associate to nearly one in four infant deaths due to birth defects in the U.S.
• In some cases, the disease is found during pregnancy
• Florida mandates congenital heart screening before newborn leaves hospital
• Although CHDs can be very serious conditions, many can be treated with surgery.

CHD refers to a problem in the structure of the heart that occurs before birth

• Septal defects, or holes within walls of the heart
• Malformed heart chambers
• Bad connections between blood vessels
• Issues with the heart muscle itself
• Doctors don’t always know why a baby has a congenital heart defect, but they tend to run in families.

Causes of CHD

• Problems with genes or chromosomes in the child, such as Down syndrome
• Certain medications, alcohol or drug abuse during pregnancy
• Viral infection (ie, German measles) in the mother during the first trimester of pregnancy

Symptoms of CHD

• At birth, bluish tint to the skin, fingernails, and lips (doctors call this cyanosis)
• Fast breathing and poor feeding
• Poor weight gain
• Fatigue, exertional symptoms in older kids

Studies Have Shown Reduced Risks for CHD in Infants

• Multivitamin supplementation may decrease risk for congenital heart defects
• Study published in Aug, 2015 from Stanford and Utah
• Quality maternal diet during year before pregnancy
• Increased consumption of legumes, fish, vegetables, grains, fruits and nuts

For more information call the Golisano Children’s Hospital Pediatric Cardiology at 239-343-7490 or visit leememorial.org.