palpitations diziness and pain in a 7yr old

[ivory67]

For the past 3 months my daughter has been exeriencing heart palpitations.  When she gets them she complains of feeling unwell and that her heart hurts.  She explains it as a squeezing or pinching pain that often goes down her arm or into her shoulders.  One of her main complaints associated with it is dizziness.  She also gets weak and says she is sweating (she feels clammy) and her face flushes.  Her heart is around 100-110 bpm usually. A couple of nights ago she felt very "weird" and dizzy and went to lay down.  She came out about 5 minutes later and said she thinks the fainted as she didn't remember falling asleep after feeling this way she just sort of came to.  She has had an ecg, holter and echo done and all are fine.  The doctor thinks (her gp) that it  is a benign arrihthmia and not to worry about it. They did detect an arryhthmia where her heart would speed up and slow down.  I'm not sure whether to leave it alone or not. It is really affecting her life.

[widsmom]

Hope all is well with your daughter. Why don't you consider getting a pediatric cardiologist consultation to double check. Sometimes GP's just cant detect everything, and cardiologists can run further tasts to make sure. Getting a second opinion I think is very important and hopefuly all will be fine.
My 5 & 1/2 duaghter too has lately been complaining of palpitations and chesst pain. I called her GP but she told me its better that a pediatric cardiologist see her to do all the nessesary investigations just to make sure. Her appointment is today.
Praying that both of our duaghters will be fine and healthy.

[momtofourboys]

just because the holter and EKG came back normal doesn't mean anything either (not saying there is something wrong) you most times have to be symptomatic for it to pick up on.
For example, my son is now 5 and he has already ahd open heart surgery when he was 3 1/2 months old. he is still having issues which I can't get anywhere with. he has ahd several holters and one is on it way for him. last night he was brought to the er he told me his heart was tired and that he felt that he was spinging around but he really honestly was not spinning. I took his sats and Hr his sats (how much oxygen is in your blood normal is above 95 we settle for ave 90 with him) his were 84 and his HR was 44 he almost passed out by the time he got to the ER he was fine. he was symptomatic and the EKG didn't show anything when this happened he was outside playing running with his brothers.
A suggestion if you don't mind, until you get your referral to the cardiologist, keep a diary of date time and activity that she is **** when this happens also ask her what it feels like.

good luck
michelle

[grendslori]

If it would ease your mind i would see a Pediatric Cardiologist. Having said that I think your GP is right in what she is telling you. The Holter results that you spoke of is perfectly normal. It is called a 'Sinus Arrhythmia'. This arrhythmia is caused by the normal breathing process; breathe in the heart rate increases, breathe out, the heart rate decreases. That's absolutely normal. One of the things I have read over and over on this board is how parents put adult symptoms on their children's complaints. In order for children to have 'pain or tingling running down the arm' they would have to have a VERY SEVERE form of heart disease. This pain is caused by Coronary Heart Disease 9which is found in adults and is what causes a heart attack) or something such as Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy which has reached a degree of having the walls of the heart outstripping the blood supply. This is an EXTREMELY RARE form of heart disease and wasn't even recognized as a form of heart disease until the 1960s. Again probably 99% of the people who have that disease are diagnosed as adults. Clammy is another word used when people are experiencing a heart attack; if you are clammy, you are not flushed, you are extremely pale. The 'pain' you daughter is feeling is probably the hard thumping of a pre-mature beat. Children will say that is chest pain, it's really not. They hear people referring to that as being chest pain, they hear peole talking about arm pain, so they have arm pain. And parents follow suit; everyone knows a person has arm pain, sweating, chest pain when they are having a heart attack, that's common knowledge, just turn any movie on and it's right there in front of you. There is one thing that I will agree with: Holters may not show a problem. The electrical tract that causes arrhythmias to happen has to be 'active' during the time that the Holter is on, otherwise nothing will show up. You would need to have an EP Study done and again, if the tract isn't active on that day, you would have the same result. Arrhythmias can be a pain to try and capture!!