- I have a sibling with congenital heart disease.
Should we be worried about them being physically active
and overexerting their heart?
(soft music)
- The heart's a muscle and like all your muscles
when you exercise it it gets stronger.
But when children have heart problems people are concerned
sometimes that making the heartbeat faster or
making it work harder which happens when you exercise will cause more problems
We know that children with congenital heart disease
are often less active than other kids and that
means they miss out on opportunities to play with their friends,
they might not learn the skills they need to be active,
and it makes them more likely to have health problems when they're older as adults.
Our research study
observed 195 children with congenital
heart disease and innocent heart murmurs
most of whom were from CHEO
and we measured their physical activity,
the time they sit still and their movement skills
starting when they were one or two years old
and every eight months until they were five years old.
Our discovery was that
children who are the least active when
they're two or three years of age are still the children who are
least active when they're five years old or older and going to school.
The most important thing is that children with
congenital heart disease feel confident that they
can be active and play with their friends.