CHILDREN’S HEALTH: HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE

April 28th, 2009

Symptoms: Most often there are no symptoms.

Possible symptoms: Headaches, pounding heartbeat, shortness of breath during exercise, flushed face.

Home care: High blood pressure must be diagnosed and treated by a doctor.

Precautions

- Your child should have regular checkups, and the doctor should measure the child’s blood pressure during each examination.

- High blood pressure can be dangerous if left untreated.

Although it has been known for decades that high blood pressure (hypertension) occurs in infants and children as well as in adults, many people are not aware of this fact. A baby’s normal blood pressure at birth is about 80/40 systolic pressure over diastolic pressure. Systolic pressure is the pressure the heart pumps out with; diastolic pressure is the pressure required to fill the heart with blood. The blood pressure then rises gradually until, by the time the child is a teenager, it is about 120/80. If the blood pressure is substantially higher than that, a child is considered to have high blood pressure.

The most common cause of transient (temporary) high blood pressure in children is emotion -fear or worry, for example. Persistent high blood pressure can be caused by kidney disease (tumours, obstructions, infections, nephritis); adrenal and testicle tumours; defects of the heart or a major artery; overactive thyroid; medications such as steroids or ephedrine; extreme overweight; and, eating too much licorice. “Essential hypertension,” the most common cause in adults, may be hereditary and has no known cause.