It can be alarming to hear: “Your child has a heart murmur.” But heart murmurs in young children are actually very common and usually do not affect a child’s health.
What’s that extra sound?
When your pediatrician listens to your child’s heart, the blood flow is what’s being examined. Each heartbeat has two separate sounds: A “lub” occurs when the valves that control blood flow from the upper heart chambers to the lower heart chambers close. A “dub” happens when valves controlling the blood flow out of the heart close.
A heart murmur describes any extra sounds heard in addition to
