8 yr old girl with hypotension?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had significant orthstatic hypotension as a teen girl and through my 20s. What helped was seeing a cardiologist who actually recommended I eat more salt.

By the way, the growth spurt thing is not real. It's an urban myth. Think about you giving blood. Your blood volume returns to normal fairly quickly--usually around 24 hours. Your child is not growing fast enough to outpace that.

OP here;

I've started upping the salt in her diet. Clearly can't hurt.

Maybe start her day with a cup of coffee too?

[Anonymous]

Adult cuffs don’t necessarily take accurate readings in kids. Agree about salt. Also why is she eating cookies for breakfast?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Adult cuffs don’t necessarily take accurate readings in kids. Agree about salt. Also why is she eating cookies for breakfast?

Dad = cookie but it's only one small "breakfast cookie" .
Anyway, I took her reading after a pm snack and activity when she was feeling normal and BP is normal. I thought I purchased a children;s cuff but apparently didn't so will get one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DD woke and after about 20 minutes was trying to eat breakfast.
"Why do I always feel bad in the mornings" she asked me.

Low blood sugar? No, she had milk and a small cookie before this.
Dehydration? She didn't look dehydrated and had drank about 8oz of milk.
high blood sugar? maybe

Then I took her blood pressure and it was 76/49. That's really low.

I looked and there's really nothing to do for low blood pressure. Should I see her ped? what could they do?

Mine was like that until I had DD at age 35. My PCP used to say wow, you have the blood pressure of a 13 year old! I think it's normal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had significant orthstatic hypotension as a teen girl and through my 20s. What helped was seeing a cardiologist who actually recommended I eat more salt.

By the way, the growth spurt thing is not real. It's an urban myth. Think about you giving blood. Your blood volume returns to normal fairly quickly--usually around 24 hours. Your child is not growing fast enough to outpace that.

OP here;

I've started upping the salt in her diet. Clearly can't hurt.

WHAT? It can hurt. Salt is very bad for you.

Agree. Please don't feed sodium unless doc tells you to. Blood pressure probably excellent for their age.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a pediatrician and I can tell you there is no medical science behind hypotension and a growth spurt. Without being seen by a doctor there is no way to diagnose if there is a medical issue. It could also be a lifestyle issue, or she simply isn’t a morning person! However, I have several colleagues whom I hear float the idea of tiredness and low BP related to a growth spurt. Even though there is no medical science to prove it, there are still lots of unknowns. Some doctors believe this theory to be true, others believe it eases parents minds in the absence of an actual medical diagnosis.

If she feels this way every day, it’s worth an evaluation to potentially rule out a medical issue, and for piece of mind.

P.S. - There is medical science behind the negative affects of too much sodium in the diet, especially in children. Do not purposely increase sodium intake without a medical recommendation.

Thanks! I'm OP and over the summer had a few hypotensive issues and concussed myself. Only medical advice was add salt to diet. I did that and have been fine for about 10 months. I am also familiar with the adult lit that there is no correlation between salt intake and hypertension. Salt hurts those with it but doesn't cause it. I can't remember how I know that.

I'll get her checked out. It does seem to be every morning.

[Anonymous]

Low BP previous poster here. I can tell you salt will do nothing to increase her BP. Zip. Zilch. Zippiddy Do Dah.

[Anonymous]

This may be a silly question, but what time is she going to bed? Is she getting enough sleep? Many kids don't get enough sleep these days because parents think they need adult-amounts of sleep and let them stay up late, whereas they need much more. When does your dd go to bed and wake up? Does she sleep with her mouth open or snore? She may have apnea and not sleeping well enough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Low BP previous poster here. I can tell you salt will do nothing to increase her BP. Zip. Zilch. Zippiddy Do Dah.

OP here: I was wondering about taking ritilin (my other child has an rx). I have not tried it but am seriously thinking about it. Do you do anything about it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This may be a silly question, but what time is she going to bed? Is she getting enough sleep? Many kids don't get enough sleep these days because parents think they need adult-amounts of sleep and let them stay up late, whereas they need much more. When does your dd go to bed and wake up? Does she sleep with her mouth open or snore? She may have apnea and not sleeping well enough.

not a silly question. Her bedtime is 8 but lights out is 9 and she does have trouble falling asleep and we have to wake her up more that 50% of the school-days. We keep to this schedule on weekends too.

[Anonymous]

Most obvious reasons: it wasn’t accurate or she is dehydrated.

Have her chug a couple glasses of water and rest.
Re-take in a couple hours. Get a reading when she is feeling fine and normal too as a baseline

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most obvious reasons: it wasn’t accurate or she is dehydrated.

Have her chug a couple glasses of water and rest.
Re-take in a couple hours. Get a reading when she is feeling fine and normal too as a baseline

afternoon readings normal so it could simply be dehydration. Getting her to "chug" is hard but...working on it.