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my 11yr old son

my son was born in may 2000, and from around 5, he has complained that his chest hurts after doing strenuous . say running, when in school sports or jogging. I thought was that it was because he is not active like this on a regular basis. but after hearing about the heart issues in children and teens who have died of heart attack when doing high school sports i am really concerned. He does often complain he doesnt feel well, whether a head ache that goes away or upset stomach. these are usually before he has to go to school or to church. or to sunday school and he is perfectly fine afterwards. Is this a symptom of a heart condition which could cause harm or possible death and what tests can we have him take to make sure he is okay.


This discussion is related to heart murmur in a 10 year old.
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187666 tn?1331173345
As a child I used to have chest pain when I had to run in school. The PE teacher would just tell me to walk it off. It wasn't until I was a junior in HS that a doctor discovered I had arrhythmia problems. My arrhythmia isn't noticeable except when it acts up. The rest of the time my heart beats just fine. That's why it took so long to figure it out. If your son is having heart issues, they can test his heart in many ways. An event monitor might be needed to "catch" what's going on when he's super active. They can do an echo to see if his heart is OK (valves, wall thickness, etc.) My opinion is that a simple 10 second ECG in the office won't catch it if it's an arrhythmia.

Good news is I'm still kicking at 58. I've had to adapt a few things in my life: I don't climb mountains, run races or drink coffee for example. But my life is still pretty terrific. :-)

As for getting sick before school or church, it may be an avoidance thing. My daughter was really good at it. She would throw up when she didn't want to go. It may be the normal kid thing or there could be something going on that's stressing him to the point of illness. We ran into that with one of the Sunday school teachers. Our daughter just didn't like him for some reason and so we took her out. The next year she was fine with the new teacher.
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976897 tn?1379167602
It does sound like your Son is using the illness as an excuse, and I had this often enough with my 3 children. As soon as I said "ok, this has been happening a lot, I'm taking you to the hospital", a miraculous cure set in. Children are not silly, if something works in their favour, they will continue to use it. However, saying that, it is wise to be sure and I would at least get your Son seen by your regular Doctor. A simple listen to the chest with a stethascope will tell many stories. Perhaps you could first check your Son by saying you intend to have some tests done on him. You may see a sudden health improvement to base your decision on.
Does he have any other symptoms? such as loss of appetite? a high temperature to accompany the sickness?
It isn't easy, my youngest Son was very clever at tricking me. He even used to hold a hot flannel against his forehead for several minutes, to convince me he had a temperature.
Bless them :)
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Avatar universal

First off I wonder if your son is using being sick as an excuse for not going to school or church.  Secondly, if he has had this 'problem' for the past 6 years it probably isn't all that serious.  However as a concerned parent the best place for answers about your son is in the doctor's office for a physical exam.
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