New mommy and VSD :-/

Tina Marie - posted on 07/28/2012

My daughter is almost 3 mo and has VSD and a handn deformity.. Ella also has severe acid relex.. She doesn't gain wieght and her eating habits are all over the place.. Surgery is prob going to happen.

Erika - posted on 03/30/2011

My son was born 7 weeks premature with a VSD. We were told he would need multiple surgerys to fix it but he wasnt gaining enough weight to have the surgery yet. We asked for surgery to be a last resort and for them to keep holding out. He was on a heart moniter for the fist 6 months of his life waiting for that surgery date. Months went by and he still didnt weight enough so we just waited.Years went by and he only roughly weighted around 20 lbs at 3 and 25lbs at 4. 2 weeks before his 5th birthday he only weighted 30 lbs but an echo showed no more hole!! It healed its self over time with no surgery. Now he is a happy and very healthy and active 40 lbs 6 year old! Surgery was drilled

Marji - posted on 10/22/2010

Ladies, if the Dr.'s suggest surgery, ask if there are ANY other options! My daughter was born with a VSD and it was suggested she have surgery. She was fine developmentally, she just wasn't gaining weight. The Dr's told us she would begin to miss milestones if she didn't gain weight and told us it is the easiest of open heart surgeries. NO ONE EVER offered us the option of a feeding tube. We had no idea that could even be done! Had we known, we would have put the feeding tube in to "beef" her up adn put the surgery off for as long as we could! I don't mean to scare anybody, just ASK the Dr's if there are any other options! Surgery should ALWAYS be the LAST option!

Lauren - posted on 10/19/2010

@Jennifer, haha your daughter and my son sound exactly alike! He is now 3 months and had tons of issues gaining weight as well as jaundice for over a month! He is finally gaining weight and although he still has the hole in his heart he does not need surgery right now. I hope he ends up the same as your daughter and ends up being an awesome baby and child! He is also developmentally on track/ahead, so even though he is small and has problems things are finally starting to go in the right direction!

Jennifer - posted on 10/19/2010

I too had a similar situation. We found out that my daughter had a murmur when she was a few days old during a home care visit. The Cardiologist confirmed that it was a VSD. We have been fortunate though because she just turned 2 in July and so far has not required surgery. The Cardiologist is just watching to see if it closes on its own. We go back in February for another echocardiogram and I believe they will decide at that point whether to repair or leave it as is since she doesn't suffer any symptoms from it. They said she is lucky because it is positioned down in the wall away from the valve so she hasn't had any complications from it as of yet, except for poor weight gain. She is only 18 pounds and 32 inches. She is also followed by a nutritionist and a GI Specialist and we have finally found a nutritional supplement that she likes so she has started gaining weight recently. But overall, she is very healthy (with the occasional ear infection) and is very bright and hit all of her developmental milestones ahead of schedule (she was potty trained at 19 months) and she speaks in full sentences and has even memorized a few of her favorite books which she loves to read to me ♥. They told us to just treat her like a normal child and don't have any restrictions on her activities as long as she remains asymptomatic. It kind of sounds like they may have the same type and position of the defect if your doctors are watching and waiting also. I hope this gives you a glimpse of how normal a life your son can lead, even with this defect. Good luck ♥

Tristina - posted on 08/16/2010

i know how you feel about the pregnancy being fine and then finding out that your new baby has a heart problem my son had his vsd repaired almost a year ago and is doing so much better. we weren't allowed to lay him flat for the first 5 1/2 months of his life cause he would have drowned from how much blood was pooling in his heart and left lung. but he is 16 months now and is a very active boy. i hope that your babys heart heals on its own. and doesn't need the surgery.

Jessica - posted on 07/22/2010

Be glad that's all he has girl. My son will be born with Tetrology of fallot which is 4 defects including the vsd & he has no choice but to have repair surgery at 4 months. If he's blue when he's born then a shunt will be put in at 1 week.

Lauren - posted on 07/19/2010

Thank you for the support! I will for sure look into groups here, just kind of a shock when everything is ok during the pregnancy and then he comes out with a problem!! He also got jaundice as well, so just a stressful first couple of days!

Melissa - posted on 07/19/2010

Hi Lauren. Wow what a hard thing to deal with, right after your little guy was born. My doctor heard a murmur at our 6 week checkup after my daughter was born last July. She's scheduled for surgery to repair it in 3 weeks from now. I'm terrified but I'm trying not to let myself get too freaked out about it. It seems to be fairly common nowadays and at the childrens' hospital where we are being treated, they perform approximately 100 of these surgeries a year. We have a really good support group through the cardio department at our hospital. You should definitely talk to yours and see if there is a local support system. Talking to people with these same kinds of problems online is definitely helpful but it is really nice to see the kids in person and see that they've recovered well and are growing up happy and healthy.



Good luck with your baby. I hope that it turns out that he doesn't need surgery to repair it and continues to be the light in your eye! :)