High Blood Pressure in Children

High blood pressure in children is more common these days than ever before. Many small aged children and babies are becoming victims of this terrible condition. Which is why is important for children to take a yearly blood pressure reading, that way if the child has an ailment such as heart or kidney problems it can be detected as soon as possible. The children have a different average blood pressure than an adult. For example a four year old should have a pressure reading of about 116/76mmHg. Remember that children and teenagers have a blood pressure slightly lower than the one of an adult.
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Most of the cases of very small children having an increased pressure are usually related to another existing condition. When a person develops hypertension and this is the result of suffering another illness it is called secondary hypertension. Sometimes the children have a high pressure reading as a result of taking a medication. Some prescriptions used to treat different conditions have the side effect of increasing the pressure of the blood. The good part is that once the medication is stopped the blood pressure is supposed to return to normal levels.

Other causes of high blood pressure in children are genetic factors. For example if a child has hypertension there is a chance that one or both parents have hypertension. Another cause and perhaps one of the main ones is the weight of the children. In the same way an adult who is overweight has a bigger chance of suffering hypertension; overweight kids have several times the probability of suffering hypertension than a child with normal weight.

The first step to reduce the high pressure in children is weight reduction, if the child is overweight. This can be easily achieved by establishing proper eating habits. Teaching your children to eat plenty of fruits and vegetables can make a huge difference in the quality of their lives. Once they eat properly the weight reduction will follow and your child will be right on the path to have a normal blood pressure. In addition to this exercising is essential in preventing conditions like hypertension. Do not let your kids watch too much TV and give them some time to play outside so that they can get some nice exercise. There are medications too but in the case of children is usually the last alternative that the doctors might consider.