"Mum, dad, my heart is stinging"
A topic for parents with children who can already speak and express themselves well. It is not uncommon for them to come to the doctor's surgery or an emergency department with the worried sentence: "My child's heart is stinging!"
There is usually a lot of excitement - but we paediatricians can almost always quickly reassure parents and children. Because there is almost never a serious illness behind this feeling, especially not a heart condition.
So what's going on? Our brain is simply structured in such a way that when we feel pain somewhere in the chest area, from a certain age and level of understanding, we simply associate it with: "Oh God, that's my heart!" And it usually gets worse because we become worried or even panic, tense up - and it stings all the more.
But you can say that in children who are otherwise healthy, who don't have a high temperature or a cough and are otherwise fit, it's never actually the heart. The stitching comes from the muscles or the nerves - from any tension or constriction in the musculoskeletal chest, but not from the heart.
This needs to be discussed calmly with the parents and the child. And if you enquire further, you will almost always get the information that the pain tends to occur when the child is at rest, when it is lounging around or lying down. However, if the child is exerting themselves and straining their cardiovascular system, the stinging hardly ever occurs. As soon as we receive confirmation of this from the parents - and after we have listened to the child and felt its pulse to be on the safe side - we can give the all-clear.
So: If your otherwise healthy child complains of pain in the heart from time to time, especially at rest, then you can actually be sure that this is actually pain from the chest and that your child does not have a heart condition.
If you are still unsure, you can of course have your child examined, but just keep this information in mind for reassurance.
Further interesting tips
Bedwetting
When it comes to bedwetting, parents are often surprised by the point at which it is first mentioned. The good news is that if the child has been wetting the bed for a longer period of time, it's good news: It often only takes patience for the issue to resolve itself.
Counselling centre
Did you know? Doc is not only a big fan of VfB Stuttgart, but also of the counselling centre for families and young people. Our practice has been working very well with this centre in Schorndorf for 16 years, which is why Doc would like to introduce it today and tell you, dear parents, about the valuable work it does.
Stool examinations
One issue of increasing importance is unnecessary and often expensive faecal examinations. Very few very useful tests can be carried out with a stool sample. But it can also be used to do a whole lot of - to stay on topic - crap.