Growth and Development of Children with Congenital Heart Disease: Nutrition

The term; Congenital Heart Disease (CHD) encapsulates congenital or post identified anomalies in cardiovascular system. A structural defect in the heart is classified as a congenital heart defect, congenital heart anomaly, or cardiovascular malformation. CHD constitutes the most common congenital anomalies in newborns. CHD emerge 8-12 of every 1000 births, making the occurrence frequency 1%. Amongst children, CHD anomaly is on critical level for 10-15 % and occurrence frequency is 1.2-1.7 CHD findings may be listed as; feeding difficulty, anoxia, heart failure, tachypnea, pulmonary hypertension, abnormal endocrine functions and upper respiratory tract infections. Besides the characteristics findings of the disease, children additionally observed of having malnutrition and growth and development deficiency. Children with CHD have a lower weight compared to their normal peers, and their neuromotor and language development is weaker along with that, growth retardation accompanied by short stature is also observed in these children. Malnutrition is observed in 25-55% of children with CHD, and 80% of them are reported to have been hospitalized. Due to the direct impact on growth, the importance of nutrition for children with heart disease is emphasized. Pediatric nurses and dietitians work in collaboration to monitor the nutrition and, accordingly, growth and development of children with CHD. They create a nutrition plan that supports energy intake for the child's individualized regime appropriate to their age group. In the ongoing process, they monitor the child's daily weight and growth and development levels. In this way, they aim to reduce mortality and morbidity rates by accelerating the post-operative recovery of children with CHD.