How to spot the signs of congenital heart disease?

  The most common cause of pathological murmurs is congenital heart disease. The incidence of congenital heart disease in children is high, and there are about 100,000 or more newborns suffering from congenital heart disease in China every year. In babies with normal growth and development, if a heart murmur is found on auscultation during physical examination, the mother should carefully recall whether the baby usually has the following manifestations. Although there are many clinical manifestations of congenital heart disease, the following ones are often overlooked by mothers.  1. Difficulty in feeding and reduced activity tolerance: the baby has difficulty in feeding, stopping eating, poor appetite, small amount of food, and even blue lips when eating milk.  2, breathing difficulties and susceptibility to pneumonia: left-to-right shunt congenital heart disease can lead to increased pulmonary blood, interstitial pulmonary edema, and children are susceptible to recurrent lung infections. Tetralogy of Fallot and severe pulmonary stenosis can lead to respiratory distress due to arterial hypoxemia.  3. Cyanosis and edema: The parts of the body where cyanosis is easily observed are: lips, oral mucosa, and the ends of the extremities. Bilateral lower limb edema can be seen in children with right heart insufficiency.  4. Hypoxic attack: Some infants with cyanotic congenital heart disease can have hypoxic attack when they cry, which is manifested as shortness of breath, breath-holding, sudden increase of cyanosis, slowing of heart rate, weakening or disappearance of the original heart murmur, or even convulsions.  There are also some babies with congenital heart disease who usually have no symptoms, normal growth and development, and activity tolerance like normal children of the same age, and are only found to have congenital heart disease when a heart murmur is detected during a physical examination or a visit for a respiratory infection, and further cardiac ultrasound is performed.