With the improvement of medical technology, the proportion of infant and child deaths caused by infectious diseases has gradually decreased, and congenital malformations, especially congenital heart disease, have become the leading cause of death in children. However, parents do not need to talk about congenital heart disease, as most congenital heart diseases are treatable. There are many misconceptions in the daily treatment and care of parents. This article elaborates on parents’ misconceptions in the treatment and care of congenital heart disease. Is it necessary to treat congenital heart disease early? With the advancement of medical technology, more and more congenital heart diseases are being diagnosed at birth or during the neonatal period. Many parents are very anxious when they learn that their children have congenital heart disease, plus there are some non-specialist doctors who do not know much about various congenital heart diseases, so many parents think that since it is congenital heart disease, they should operate as early as possible. In fact, there are many types of congenital heart disease, and many small atrial defects or small ventricular septal defects that do not cause significant hemodynamic changes do not require surgical treatment. For ventricular septal defects, there are different degrees of self-healing with different parts of the defect, and the healing ratio is reported to be between 20% and 60%, which eliminates the need for surgery if it can heal on its own. The vast majority of self-healing occurs before the age of 4-5 years; therefore, some site-specific ventricular defects can be followed until school age after a clear diagnosis and analysis by a specialized pediatric cardiovascular surgeon before deciding on surgical or interventional treatment. In addition, we know that the younger the child is, the more “tender” the heart is, i.e., the less mature the heart muscle is, as well as the other organs. Premature surgery not only requires a high level of surgeon’s skills, but also the effects of extracorporeal circulation (when the heart is stopped during heart surgery, an extracorporeal circulation machine is used to replace the heart and lungs to ensure the supply of oxygen and nutrients to the vital organs of the body, called extracorporeal circulation) on the brain, lungs and other organs are obvious. The timing of surgery should be decided by a professional pediatric cardiovascular physician. Is it better to treat congenital heart disease at an older age? At the other extreme, some parents think that their children are too young and have poor resistance, so they decide to “let them have surgery when they are older”. Some non-specialist doctors may also advise parents to “operate after two years old”. Some congenital heart diseases require early surgery. For example, if the septum is intact and the aorta is transposed, it is best to operate within two weeks after birth, as it is likely that the left ventricle will degenerate after one month, thus losing the best time for radical surgery. Another example is the single ventricle type of heart disease with combined pulmonary hypertension, then pulmonary artery circumferential surgery should be performed before 2-3 months of age, otherwise the opportunity for surgery may be lost forever later. Some diseases, such as complete atrial septal defect and heart disease such as transposition of the great arteries combined with ventricular septal defect, often produce organic pulmonary hypertension after the age of 2 years, which can lead to surgical failure. Even in simple ventricular septal defect, if the ventricular defect is relatively large and the child shows signs of impaired cardiac function such as repeated pneumonia infections, impaired breastfeeding, or slower growth, early surgery should be performed. Therefore, for congenital heart disease, you should go to a specialized congenital heart center and receive professional guidance from a cardiologist, who will determine the best time for surgery. Is there any medication that can treat congenital heart disease? There are no medications that can promote the healing of congenital heart disease. Usually, the medications prescribed by doctors are used to reduce the burden on the heart and treat cardiac insufficiency. If there are drugs recommended to cure congenital heart disease, be careful not to fall for them. Some points to note in the daily care of children with congenital heart disease: Avoid colds In children with congenital heart disease, 70% to 80% of the heart malformations are conditions such as ventricular septal defect, atrial septal defect and patent ductus arteriosus. These children have congested lungs and are usually susceptible to colds and pneumonia, especially in winter, when they are more likely to get respiratory infections and cause deterioration of heart function. For this reason, parents should let their children go outdoors more often to get some sunshine and fresh air; try not to go to crowded public places to avoid infectious diseases, and live in rooms where windows should be opened frequently for fresh air to avoid colds and respiratory infections. Some children usually sweat a lot, underwear is often wet, and parents are afraid of children’s colds, but still give children wear more. This practice is not scientific. Because children with precardiac disease have an overburdened heart, heart function is often poor, wearing too much clothing will only aggravate the child’s sweating. The child is weak, in the child to change wet clothes, the child will often catch a cold and cause a cold. It is recommended that parents change their children into loose underwear, do not wear too many clothes to keep warm, and lining the chest and back with a small dry towel, so that the child is less likely to catch a cold if the towel is changed several times a day instead of changing clothes. Enhance nutrition There are many children with prediabetes who have small appetites and grow thin, parents are often anxious and try every possible way to make their children eat more or let them take some appetizing medicine. This is also a misconception. In fact, a child’s small appetite is largely caused by heart insufficiency. The vast majority of children will have an increased appetite, gain weight, and improve growth after their heart disease is cured. Until cardiac surgery or intervention is performed, children will not do well on appetite pills or more food alone. The correct approach is that you should normally feed your child nutritious foods, such as eggs, chicken, fish, milk, lean pork, and fresh vegetables. For children with feeding difficulties or those who are lagging behind in growth and development, earlier surgery or interventional treatment for heart disease should be sought. For infants who are breast-feeding, there are now also special formulas of high nutrients that allow the child to get more nutrition without increasing the amount of milk, but this needs to be used under the guidance of a doctor. If the child has weak sucking or breathing difficulties, feed patiently, with small and frequent meals, to avoid choking. If milk stays in the trachea, it can cause respiratory ventilation disorders and worsen breathing difficulties, and also predispose to tracheitis or pneumonia, and even lead to death by asphyxia. Encourage exercise Except for children with severe cardiac insufficiency or some special heart malformations, there is generally no need to strictly restrict the child’s activities. On the contrary, children should be encouraged to participate in moderate physical exercise to enhance their physical fitness. There are many different types of heart malformations, with varying degrees of severity, and the amount of activity for children with precordial disease can vary greatly. If possible, an exercise test can be done at the hospital to understand the function of the heart and how much activity the child can best tolerate. Emergency hypoxia During infancy, if the child cries violently for a long time, it may increase the burden on the heart, so it should be avoided as much as possible. Children with cyanotic precordial disease can often have hypoxic episodes induced by crying, defecation, cold or trauma during infancy, manifesting as irritability, difficulty in breathing, aggravation of cyanosis, weak crying, etc. In severe cases, it can be life-threatening. In this case, parents should immediately flex the lower limbs of the child and place the child in the chest and knee position, and if possible, give oxygen and other measures. If the child is still not relieved, he/she should go to the hospital as soon as possible. Families with children who have frequent hypoxic attacks should have an oxygen bag for emergency use. Vaccinations In order to improve the immunity of children with prediabetes, children can receive various immunization programs, commonly known as “vaccinations”, including BCG, polio vaccine, pertussis vaccine, diphtheria vaccine, measles vaccine, etc., during the growth process. Pre-heart disease is not a contraindication to vaccination. Children with other diseases such as fever, diarrhea, pneumonia, etc. cannot receive vaccination, but can be given after these diseases are cured. Many children with prediabetes have to take medications for a longer period of time, such as digoxin, Kepone and diuretics. These drugs have a strict method of administration, parents must follow the doctor’s prescription, on time, according to the dosage, can not arbitrarily increase or decrease the dose and stop the drug, otherwise it will affect the effectiveness of treatment, affecting the accuracy of the doctor’s judgment of the condition, and may even cause the child drug overdose and poisoning. Parents should pay enough attention to their children with precordial disease psychologically, in addition to taking good care of them in terms of diet and activities. The child should not be overly pampered because of heart disease, which will lead to the child’s capricious and self-centered personality, nor should the child’s requirements be lowered because of heart disease, which will lead to inferiority and timidity. According to the current medical level, the overall survival rate of children with precocious heart disease has increased significantly, especially in developed areas, 80% to 90% of children can grow up and have a better quality of life after treatment. Therefore, special care in life and psychological education as if they were healthy people are very important for the growth of children with precocious heart disease. Surgical treatment or interventional treatment? Interventional treatment of heart disease is a method of treating heart disease by entering the human heart and large blood vessels through special equipment such as catheters under the guidance of X-ray fluoroscopy or other imaging methods. Because it requires only local anesthesia, is easy to operate, does not require open-heart surgery, is less painful for the patient, less risky, and has a quick recovery, its application is becoming more and more widespread and its scope is gradually expanding to all fields of cardiology, and currently common heart diseases such as coronary heart disease and congenital heart disease can be cured by interventional treatment. It should be clear that not all congenital heart diseases can be treated with interventional therapy. Currently, for many complex congenital heart diseases, interventional therapy may only play a partial role in them or be mosaic with surgical procedures. At present, congenital heart diseases that can be treated with intervention include arteriovenous ductus arteriosus, atrial septal defect, ventricular septal defect, pulmonary stenosis, aortic stenosis, aortic constriction, coronary artery fistula, pulmonary artery branch stenosis, blockage of collateral vessels and anomalous channels. Some parents have raised some concerns about the safety of interventional treatment. Interventional treatment for congenital heart disease has been available for more than 30 years, and its complications are not dramatically higher compared to surgical procedures. The vast majority of complications are related to improper grasp of the indications for interventional therapy. Therefore, patients with congenital heart disease should go to an experienced pediatric cardiologist for a professional examination, and the specialist will agree with the parents on the best plan to ensure safe and effective treatment for the child.