Causes of High Blood Pressure in Children

Even babies and young children can have high blood pressure. Children 3 years of age and up should have a blood pressure reading. Detecting high blood pressure is imperative to improving health and preventing life-long problems. Only a small percentage of children have a higher blood pressure reading than others.

Factors

• Blood pressure normally increases as a child ages. More specifically, gender, age, height and weight are used to determine a high blood pressure reading in young children.

Causes

• High blood pressure in children is mostly caused by kidney disease. A small percentage is due to hormonal disorders or tumors. An even smaller number are related to rare cases of meningitis, encephalitis or brain tumors.

Symptoms

• It may be difficult to detect high blood pressure in children due to the common nature of the symptoms. Excessive crying, irritability, lack of weight gain and low fever are some symptoms in children 1 to 2 years of age. Headaches, nausea, heart palpitations and over-excitement appear in older children. In severe cases, seizures and swelling may occur.

Detecting High Blood Pressure

• A blood pressure reading is the only way to detect high blood pressure in children with indistinct symptoms.

Treatment

• Prompt treatment is essential. Mildly high blood pressure is very successfully treated through weight reduction, exercise, reduced stress and diet. A low-salt, high-calcium, high-potassium, high-magnesium and low-fat diet is prescribed. Moderate or severe cases are frequently treated with oral medicines.

Coming Soon

• A number of high blood pressure cases in children go undetected and many are very complex to diagnose. Researchers have developed a computer program that will detect high blood pressure in children. This program can be utilized in any medical practice that has electronic patient records (see Resources).