My son has a heat murmur, aortic stenosis with a bicuspid valve to be specific.

He was evaluated by a pediatric cardiologist at about a month old. He had an EKG and an echo-cardiogram done, but no xray.

We xray babies, little one like yours, all the time in the ER for a variety of reasons. I don't think one xray is as bad as several, its more of a cumulative effect thats a problem.

 

My daughter has a bicuspid aortic valve.

Many infants have heart murmurs and outgrow them by 6-9months. Before going to the cardiologist find out why the dr is concerned about this heart murmur.

Asha(3) had her heart murmur diagnosed at 9months. I do not remember if my dr mentioned it to me before or not. She had to have a chest x-ray done before going to the cardiologist. The chest x-ray will show them if there is an enlargement of the heart. I am not sure how they do a chest x-ray on a 1month old since they can't hold their heads up but in older infants they strap them into a canister type device with their arms stuck above their heads. It is very uncomfortable for them and there is alot of crying. She was 13months when she saw the cardiologist. She had to be knocked out because she would not sit still for the echo/ekg. Hers was a very loud murmur and our dr actually thought it was something she'd need surgery on right away. He was surprised that it was bicuspid aortic valve because they're not normally that loud, only 1-2% of the population gets it and boys get it more often then girls.

Nadia(almost 2) was sent to the cardiologist at 14months(got in at 15months) for a sudden heart murmur. She did not have one before she saw the ped at 14months. Because of Asha's defect the dr listened more carefully to Nadia. Hers is a Still's murmur. It shows up when they're around 12months and when they hit puberty it disappears. They don't know why but it is not a concern.

My sister has a heart murmur, she does not have to take antibiotics before surgery or dental work though unlike Asha.

 

Our dr found a heart murmur in DD at 1 week old. Herefered her to a ped cardiologist. She was sent in for an echocardiogram and EKG at 2 weeks to determine what was causing the murmur. They found that she had a mild case of pulmonary stenosis. The vavle from her heart to lungs was narrowed. Basically it hasn't caused her any problems. She's gone in to get it checked every couple months but it hasn't gotten any worse. Murmurs can be caused by a number of things and are quite common in infants, some are not so serious and other might need to be taken care of. I would think they'd be sending her in for an echoscan to see what is causing the murmur.

 

Hi,

My son was born with partial av-canal defect, which was repaired by open heart surgery at Boston Children's in December. He's doing great! He was 9 months old at the time of surgery and is now just over a year old.

We did not have an x-ray until around the time of surgery and then as part of the immediate follow-up during the days in the hospital after surgery. They diagnosed him at 4 days of age with and echocardiogram (basically, an ultrasound machine) and EKG, and continued monitoring him until the time of surgery using just these two measurements You might ask if these things could be done first since they might be able to get a diagnosis with just that. They will tell you if, for some reason, they think an x-ray is necessary.

Not all defects require open heart surgery and some murmurs are, in fact, innocent. But the sooner you get information, the better equipped you are to deal with things.

Good luck,
Laurie