babies with svt

Hi my son had his first episode at 6 weeks (he is 17months now) he just seemed unwell and when seen at the hospital they realised a heart rate of 300+

It sounds like you had a really worrying time, its awful for a parent you feel so helpless.

My son is on 2.4mls flecanide and it was stoped when he was a year old but the SVT returned two months later when he contracted salmonella and now he's back on the flecande.

we are travelling to India for a holiday and im fretting a lil i just hope nothing happens to him there has anybody taken there child who has svt on holiday?

sara

Hi. Can understand your fears- my daughter was diagnosed with SVT when I was 37 weeks pregnant. She had a brief spell in special care after birth and a few admissions to hospital in her first year when episodes occured. She is now 8 - she takes Digoxin and Atenalol twice a day and has done since she was about 3. This seems to control her symptoms which only really occur now if she is unwell and has a temperature. I can honestly say it doesn't affect her life in any way at all - she is obviously aware of her condition and is at an age now when she can tell us if her heart feels \"funny\". Hope this helps.

HI,

My son, like your's was diagnosed at 2 1/2 / 3 weeks old. He is now almost 3 years old.

He was rushed in via a special children's cardiac ambulance crew with heart rate of 367, as you can understand we were worried sick as we were told that our lovely little boy may not make it as his organs were shutting down, however he did after several attempts of Amiodarone and cardioversion he responded.

He then went on to have several attacks which required cardioversion, but was then stable enough to be taking regular doses of Amiodarone.

He stayed on this until he was 18 months of age as he continued to have attacks whilst on this.

He finally was taken off of this medication in January 2008, for which I wasn't happy about, as the medication felt like our safety net!! We were told that the chances of Finley (our little boy) having another attack was very low as most infants outgrow it within the first year and even more so because he had quite severely.

However, 5 weeks passed and he had another severe attack with heat rate of 357bpm, I was devastated, as we were just letting go of the apron strings and letting our guard down!!

He was rushed back into hospital given Andesonine, for which he didn't respond to, he was on a 4th and final attempt given the lowest dose for an adult whereby he responded to our relief!!

He went back into The Royal Brompton & Harefield Hospital on HDU to see if he would respond to Flecainide (which he didn't when he was first diagnosed).

He now has 5.5ml Flecainide 3 x a day and is doing very well!

We have been advise dthat he he has another severe attack that a pacemaker will be fitted, if not he will have one fitted when he is older / stronger!

Sorry for the long story, but just to reassure you that once the medication is at the right dosages they are fine and look and act like there is nothing wrong with them. However us as parents seem to be mostly affected by it all - typical!!!

I do hope that your little ones are and hope that you are handling all the stress of it!!! xx

Hi my baby was diagnosed with an svt of 265bpm before she was born at 34 weeks she also had hydrops caused by the svt. After she was born the heart reverted back to normal rythymn. She was put on a dose of atenolol once daily for the first year and had no further episodes during this time. They weaned her off it and she has recently had two episodes again. We are not really sure what is causing the problem the cardiologist said it is hard to tell unless an ECG is done while it is occuring. Her svt seems to revert back to normal pretty quickly. The only indication I have that it is occuring is she gets very distressed and cannot be settled. Cries, breathes very rapidly, and vomits but then has no episodes of vomiting the rest of the day. Apparently vomiting stimulates a vagal response which returns the heart to normal rythymn. She is now 18 months old but has no other problems.

Hi, I am mother to Davie, now 17weeks. He was brought to hospital with suspected meningitis and it was here they discovered he had svts. His heart rate went up to 249 and to bring it down they tried submerging him in ice cold water for twenty sec, this did not work so they gave him five doses of a drug called ADENISINE(not sure if this is correct spelling). This happened a few times over a week and he was eventually rushed to a specialist heart hospital where he suffered a further episode and also went into a culvulsion. It was the worst experience of our lifes, i thought we were going to loose him. We have him home now and he is on 3.6ml of flecanide twice daily, he was on propananol aswell but it was sneding him into a low heart rate in his sleep. I totally feel your pain about trying to get the medicine into the baby..its horrible. I set my alarm for 6am and give the first dosage while he is asleep, this way i can allow the compulsary half an hour before his next feed. In the evening if hes awake i find that the further back in his mouth i put the syringe the less he seems to taste it. Flecanide is one of the least harmful drugs and my carioligist has told me tp stick with it as some of the other meds are very bad on the liver. Davie is now 17weeks old and is doing well, he had a small episode last week but came out of it himself after about ten minutes, this could be because he is gaining weight and needs his dosage increased. I am sorry you are going threw this with your baby, they are so precious and although there are more serious heart conditions its still so worrying when its your own child. Iv looked into it and thankfully babies do not die from this and once monitored correctly they have normal lifes. I hope this is of some use to you and i would love to hear from you again. My husband and I found it reassuring reading your entry.

My daughter was diagnosed with SVT when she was a week old. She spent the first 6 weeks of her life in hospital as her heart rate was 360 beats per minute when she was in SVT. It wasn't diagnosed straight away as she was swinging in and out of sinus rythmn and SVT. The doctors used ice water to stimlulate the vagus nerve \"divers reflex\" but this didn't keep her in normal rythmn for long so she was tried on various medications ( amiodorone, flecinaide ,adenosine etc) until finally being put on digoxin and propanolol. She was finally sent home and treated as an outpatient and I bought a stethoscope to monitor her heart . She was discharged at 18 months old and is now 18 years old and at university! It is an electrical disturbance in the heart much like palpitations in an adult. I hope this helps as it is very worrying at the time. All the best.

Hi everyone. Our daughter was born by c-section at 29+6 weeks when they diagnosed she was suffering from svts and hydrops.

She is now on propranolol and digoxin. The specialist says we can change propranolol to antenolol so we only need to give this once per day, and we are hoping they will allow us to stop digoxin now as she was growing out of the dose.

How are all your svt sufferers doing now?

Hi my son was diagnosed with this when I was 25 weeks in pregnancy. It does get better with treatment and time. My son is now 18 months with little to No symptoms. They said It's possible to reappear when he gets older. So far he is a normal active little guy.

Hi I have a five month old who has SVT. She's been diagnosed a month tomorow. She's still having episodes and is on beta blocker. It is scary and I hope your sons OK.