Patient Resources
Patient Resources | We understand that this all may be new to you. We are here to ensure you receive the best quality care in a warm, welcoming setting. For your convenience, please print & fill out the forms below. Bring them with you to your appointment!
Identifying signs and symptoms of heart conditions in infants is often difficult. Some potential symptoms include poor feeding and poor weight gain, unexplained fussiness during feedings and inability to feed for a “normal” amount of time. Babies can have difficulty breathing, labored breathing or fast breathing as well as poor color such as blue skin (cyanosis) or pale or gray skin. Of course, there are other potential causes of the above symptoms outside of heart conditions. It is best to talk to your pediatrician or primary care provider to sort out the cause. If a consultation is needed with a pediatric cardiologist, we are happy to help!
You should bring your insurance information or insurance card including any secondary insurance information. If you have medical history records on your child relating to the heart or other conditions that could be heart-related, this is always helpful. It is also helpful to discuss heart history with your family. Having a good understanding of your family’s cardiac history helps us help you.
Ensuring the safety of young athletes on our playing fields is very important, and sports clearance is a big part of what we do. Sometimes athletes come to us because of a finding on physical exam such as a heart murmur. Sometimes athletes come in because of new, concerning symptoms such as chest pain, shortness of breath or dizziness. We also see these patients because of concerning family histories such as early onset heart disease or heart attacks or familial genetic conditions such as cardiomyopathies. All of the above are valid reasons to see a pediatric cardiologist. Obviously, most kids do not need pediatric cardiology subspecialty clearance to play sports. Your primary care provider should perform a comprehensive history including family history and physical exam to determine your child’s eligibility to play sports. Again, if any concerns arise on this evaluation, we are here for you.
One of the more common reasons that young patients come to see us is heart murmurs. A murmur is an extra sound produced by the heart or blood vessels that is heard on auscultation of the heart with a stethoscope. When doctors listen to a patient’s heart, only 2 sounds should be heard. These are the “lub, dub” sounds that are typically described. Extra sounds, or murmurs, outside of these sounds are typically not heard. Although murmurs are not heard if the cardiac exam is totally normal, there are many “innocent” murmurs of childhood. An innocent murmur is one that is caused by simple, normal sound reverberations within a structurally normal heart. In other words, there is no heart disease or heart defect. Sometimes we call these hearts “musical hearts.” Kids oftentimes outgrow their heart murmurs over as they get older. Some murmurs are easily identified as innocent murmurs, while other murmurs can be difficult to sort out and could indicate a structural heart problem. Your primary care provider will determine if and when it is appropriate to see a pediatric cardiologist.