Aa
Could this be cardiac related
Hello,
I have a son who is just 13 months and has always had a spiderweb pattern of veins through his very pale skin over his chest. He gained weight really well as a baby until around 7 months when he just stopped putting on weight but kept growing in height. For the first part of his life he was around the 90th percentile for both his height and weight and around 7 months he reached his peak of 20 lbs and has now dropped to the 50th percentile for his height and the 10th (or less) for his weight. Recently he had a bout of RSV where he was hospitalized for two nights and during the intake at the ER, (while his fever was 39.9 C), I saw his HR recorded at 179 and resp rate was 60.
Since he has been home, he has had two bouts of cyanosis and very cold extremities. The first episode, I thought it was too cold for him, because he was only wearing a shirt and diaper in the house. The second episode, I watched him and he pinked up very quickly after I started to, again, warm him up. Yesterday they observed the same thing at daycare...so, now I'm very concerned that there is something we need to address urgently. I'm 99% certain the pediatrician said that he had a heart murmur, but so do I and so did my Dad.
One more thing...I have always thought the sclera of his eyes looked blue...(truthfully it made me a little suspicious of Osteogenesis Imperfecta when he was a baby)...but I don't know if that means anything or not. I'm going to call my pediatrician tomorrow and see if we can get in for further testing. He has done bloodwork for the failure to thrive (amino acid levels, celiac testing) and everything came back normal. My son also has a cows milk allergy, so we are looking into more allergy testing as well. Any advice you have for me would be fantastic!
Thank you for your help!
Sincerely,
worriedmom32
I have a son who is just 13 months and has always had a spiderweb pattern of veins through his very pale skin over his chest. He gained weight really well as a baby until around 7 months when he just stopped putting on weight but kept growing in height. For the first part of his life he was around the 90th percentile for both his height and weight and around 7 months he reached his peak of 20 lbs and has now dropped to the 50th percentile for his height and the 10th (or less) for his weight. Recently he had a bout of RSV where he was hospitalized for two nights and during the intake at the ER, (while his fever was 39.9 C), I saw his HR recorded at 179 and resp rate was 60.
Since he has been home, he has had two bouts of cyanosis and very cold extremities. The first episode, I thought it was too cold for him, because he was only wearing a shirt and diaper in the house. The second episode, I watched him and he pinked up very quickly after I started to, again, warm him up. Yesterday they observed the same thing at daycare...so, now I'm very concerned that there is something we need to address urgently. I'm 99% certain the pediatrician said that he had a heart murmur, but so do I and so did my Dad.
One more thing...I have always thought the sclera of his eyes looked blue...(truthfully it made me a little suspicious of Osteogenesis Imperfecta when he was a baby)...but I don't know if that means anything or not. I'm going to call my pediatrician tomorrow and see if we can get in for further testing. He has done bloodwork for the failure to thrive (amino acid levels, celiac testing) and everything came back normal. My son also has a cows milk allergy, so we are looking into more allergy testing as well. Any advice you have for me would be fantastic!
Thank you for your help!
Sincerely,
worriedmom32
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Dear Worried Mom,
Without evaluating your son, I cannot say for sure what is happening with him. I can say that a prominent patterns of veins in infants and young toddlers does not necessarily correlate with heart disease. In fact, their skin is so "see-through" that it's very easy to see when they turn blue peripherally or if their veins are prominent. As well, there is some immaturity in the system that controls how "open" the blood vessels are peripherally, such that they can be rather reactive. If he is not blue inside his mouth and is behaving normally, this is likely normal. At minimum, he should be evaluated by his pediatrician to ensure that his oxygen saturations are normal. With regard to his weight loss, babies typically find their growth curve "groove" before 18 months of age, so he may be settling into his channel; sometimes, that channel is in a percentile lower than where he started.. Certainly, evaluation for potentially life-threatening issues can be done, but he just may need observation over time. I will not be addressing the blue sclerae in this forum, as that is not a cardiac problem.
Without evaluating your son, I cannot say for sure what is happening with him. I can say that a prominent patterns of veins in infants and young toddlers does not necessarily correlate with heart disease. In fact, their skin is so "see-through" that it's very easy to see when they turn blue peripherally or if their veins are prominent. As well, there is some immaturity in the system that controls how "open" the blood vessels are peripherally, such that they can be rather reactive. If he is not blue inside his mouth and is behaving normally, this is likely normal. At minimum, he should be evaluated by his pediatrician to ensure that his oxygen saturations are normal. With regard to his weight loss, babies typically find their growth curve "groove" before 18 months of age, so he may be settling into his channel; sometimes, that channel is in a percentile lower than where he started.. Certainly, evaluation for potentially life-threatening issues can be done, but he just may need observation over time. I will not be addressing the blue sclerae in this forum, as that is not a cardiac problem.
Thank you for writing back to me...i really appreciate it!. I have always wondered about those blue sclera...so thank you for letting me know your daughter had that too. I called the pediatrician's office yesterday and their office is closed until the 22nd. So...i guess I can either take our son to our GP, or wait until he gets back. I work in the health system in our small city, so I know both of them really well...just not sure who will make the referral for us...Guess I will try and inform myself about who there is around here to refer on to for pediatric cardiac services...Thank you again!
When he turns blue does the inside of his mouth change, or is it just extremities like hands, feet, legs etc? My daughter does this, and while it's scary, but her cardiologist (she was born with two heart defects) and her pediatrician assure us it is acrocyanosis. Unless their nailbeds and INSIDE their mouth turns blue, it is not central cyanosis.
That said, I'm glad you're having him looked at as the failure to thrive, blue sclera (our daughter had that too at birth, but she outgrew it), murmur and other issues do seem a bit concerning.
That said, I'm glad you're having him looked at as the failure to thrive, blue sclera (our daughter had that too at birth, but she outgrew it), murmur and other issues do seem a bit concerning.
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