Helpppppppp

Our little baby girl was diagnosed with first degree hearth block at 4 months. She was being monitored monthly and in her past visit they found out she has completed hearth block and will need a pm :(. She is 10 months now and has had no growth issue.. She is very active and walking already ... I wonder if we should wait till she gets older???? We have no history of pm in our families and I don't understand why she has it.. Dr,s don't know either???? Anyone else with a similar situation????

2 Comments

Look on the right top side

by janetinak - 2013-05-11 01:05:39

of this page & put your subject ( such as: baby with pacemaker) & you can read previous posts. I am sure several of our members who got a PM as a baby will weigh in also. I agree with the above post by AS, do the research then do what is best for your little one. The PM companies have face book pages too. My PM is a Boston Scientific have a great informational. page to look at also.

Hope this helps,


Janet

heart block

by Tracey_E - 2013-05-11 09:05:05

I have the same thing! No one else in my family has it, neither of my kids got it, just me. The only genetic link they've found is moms with Lupus are more likely to have babies with heart block. If you don't have Lupus (my mom does not), then it's just an electrical connection that isn't there. It's not genetic, it's not caused by anything we did wrong, there's nothing we could have done to prevent it, it's just a fluke.

How low is her heart rate? That's how I would decide when to go with the pm. It is hard on the body to have the heart out of sync, but it's really hard on the body to have the heart rate be too low or not go up with activity. At her age, she's not doing much to get her heart rate up so I'd go by resting rate. If it's dipping too low, it's stressful on her organs because they're not getting the oxygen they need and a pm is a good idea. If her resting rate is high, like 50's or higher, you might be able to put it off and monitor for a bit but I'd probably do it sooner rather than later if it was my baby.

When I was diagnosed in 1970, pm's were very new and they didn't give them to children unless it was life and death so I got by without until I was an adult. I was tired and dizzy a lot, I was not allowed to do any sports or vigorous activities. Our bodies adapt when we're children so I got by ok and I never looked sick, though I missed out on a lot. I think it's so cool that they can pace a baby now! I think back on all the things I wasn't allowed to do, all the worry my parents went through, it's nice to know families today have a solution.

St Judes has a great short animation that explains what heart block is and how the pm fixes it.
http://health.sjm.com/arrhythmia-answers/videos-and-animations

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