Expert: Dr. Frederick Blount - 7/25/2004

Question
Dr Blount,

Our Dr. found a "Innocent Heart" murmor in our baby at her 2 month check up.  He said it was nothing to worry about since most murmurs were innocent.

However, I just found in the Child Development book our Dr. gave us, information indicating that ANY heart murmur detected under the age of 6 months was almost never "Innocent".

Can you give me some guidance before I talk to our Dr. about it?

Thanks in advance,

Rachel Dahlen

Answer
There are innocent heart murmurs in babies. All I can add is that if you trust your physician and he says it is innocent then it is almost certainly innocent. There are other signs besides what a physicians hears that add to the evidence as to the diagnosis of innocent or not. A murmur is similar to the noise in the plumbing which happens when a fluid is going from a pipe of one size to another size. The heart is a complex pump and very many times in its development the fluid (blood) has to go from one conduit (bloods vessel)to another of different size so that a noise (murmur)occurs. The murmur is usually transient for several months or less but not always.