Heart block-slow heart beat for a 2 yr old

Dear all, my premature son nearing two years old is diagnosed with heart block from the 24hrs holter scan result, however the doctor is saiding the it is a 2 to 1 and occasionally 3 to 1 sinus block and the result is 'not that bad'.. he said that the pacemaker solution can be put on hold for the mean time but close monitoring and check up again in 3 mths time will still need to be done...

Very grateful if anyone can give any guidances/experiences on this condition...thank you all

[grendslori]

Hello again, I am sure you must be worried, most mothers are when a doctor tells them ANYTHING is wrong with their child's heart, after all, this is the heart. Add that to the fact that your little one was a premie, doesn't help to eleviate fears for you. One out of every one hundred babies born today, around the world, is born with some type of cardiac issue; 95% of those babies/childen can be helped either medicaly or surgically and almost all of those children go on to live perfectly normal lives. Looking at what you have written here, while important, the blocks may not be the primary problem your son faces; the enlarged heart would be. A chest x-ray may show a false enlarged heart; what did his echo show? Enlarged heart with thin walls or an enlarged heart due to thickened walls? Thickened walls in the heart can result as a genetic defect so all members of the family would need to have echoes done. Thinned walls can be a result of a virus or sometimes, rarely has a genetic component. What type of 'enlargement' does your son have?

[grendslori]

Hello and welcome to our site!  Heart Blocks can be fairly common, usually in adults, not so much in children. Usually before a pacemaker is inserted, most PCs want to know if the children are symptomatic. A complete heart block would require a pacemaker. Has your son's PC explaine exactly what a heart block is to you?

[msl3am]

Hi,

The PC actually said he has a 2 to 1 sinus block and occasional 3 to 1 block when sleeping, he advises close monitoring in this case. he also mentioned there's a little enlargement of the heart...is this serious and will it worsen? I'm terribily worried every day. Thank you for your advises

[grendslori]

Hello again, I am sure you must be worried, most mothers are when a doctor tells them ANYTHING is wrong with their child's heart, after all, this is the heart. Add that to the fact that your little one was a premie, doesn't help to eleviate fears for you. One out of every one hundred babies born today, around the world, is born with some type of cardiac issue; 95% of those babies/childen can be helped either medicaly or surgically and almost all of those children go on to live perfectly normal lives. Looking at what you have written here, while important, the blocks may not be the primary problem your son faces; the enlarged heart would be. A chest x-ray may show a false enlarged heart; what did his echo show? Enlarged heart with thin walls or an enlarged heart due to thickened walls? Thickened walls in the heart can result as a genetic defect so all members of the family would need to have echoes done. Thinned walls can be a result of a virus or sometimes, rarely has a genetic component. What type of 'enlargement' does your son have?

[CHELLETO6DOGS]

Hi there
I agree with grendslori.. just to try to put you at ease.. about your son's enlarged heart.. if it was with an xray, like my son's was, the hospital said it was an enlarged heart and sent him over to his cardiologist right away.. the cardiologist did an echo and said ti was fine.. the reason for the xray to show an enlarged heart is when they are young (and my son was 6 years old and had pneumonia) sometimes they can't take that deep breath so when the radiologist has to measure the heart with the lungs it in fact looks like an enlarge heart..
Michelle

[msl3am]

Hi  grendslori  & CHELLETO6DOGS,

Thank you both for the guidances and comfort.

However, my son slightly enlarged heart is found out during an ultrasound scan & ECG.. The PC said that it is due to harder pumping of the heart that there is this slight 'enlargement'...

I feel very depressed everyday once I thought of this...so sorry about my nagging and I'm deeply grateful to both of you for everything.

[heartmama]

Hi there..my son (2.5) has complete right heart block resulting from open heart surgery as a newborn.  The doctor is not concerned at this time and says many people are walking around with heart block and don't know it.   Your heart re-routes it' electrical signals around the block which results in delays in pumping..the bigger question is, is it "complete" heart block  (which almost always requires a pacemaker) and how likely is it to develop into complete heart block if not there already?  

Although I stongly disagree with "grendsslori" statement that children with heart defects go on to lead normal lives, I agree with the enlarged heart being your primary concern, it means the heart is working to hard to pump blood throughout the body and really should be looked at to see what is causing this to happen..best of luck to you!

[grendslori]

It is very important to know why your son's heart is enlarging; that should be your prime focus especially if he has thickened walls. The percentages of that being caused by a genetic factor is high and all of the family members need to have echoes to rule out, or be treated for the problem.

heartmamma, I'm sorry you strongly disagree with my statement about children with CHD going on to live normal lives. The reality of it is that, that is the truth, and any pediatric cardiologist will tell you that. My daughter fell into the 5% and lost her childhood and teen years to CHD. (on a side note she also suffered from RBBB, LBBB, SSS as well as a Mahiem Fiber, so we have dealt with a lot of electrical issues on the heart. She had a duel chamber pacemaker) The heart does not "re-route" itself in a block; the heart beat is dropped altogether. When the heart beat re-routes itself is when there are "added' electrical pathways in the atrium referred to as Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome. In WPW there is an 'extra electrical pathway' on which the electrical impulse, which starts off at the SA Node, travels down and when it hits that pathway it 'jumps over' onto that pathway and the heart beat increases to a rate of 160+. At some point it will then 'jump back over to the normal pathway and the heartbeat returns back to normal. That is a whole different issue than the heart block issue.