7 Ways to Keep Your Child’s Heart Healthy: What Every Parent Should Know

7 Ways to Keep Your Child’s Heart Healthy: What Every Parent Should Know

We usually think of heart disease as a problem for adults. But the process that leads to heart attacks and strokes, plaque building up in the arteries, can begin in childhood. Habits formed early, such as how kids eat, move, and sleep, tend to follow them into adulthood. The good news is that the steps you take today to keep your child’s heart healthy can protect them for life.

About 1 in 5 U.S. children and teens has obesity, according to the CDC, and many have high blood pressure, high cholesterol or prediabetes without anyone knowing. Here are seven practical ways parents can help.

1. Get Them Moving Every Day

Physical activity strengthens the heart, helps control weight, blood pressure and blood sugar, and improves mood, sleep and focus in school.

The American Heart Association recommends:

  • Ages 3 to 5: Plenty of active play throughout the day
  • Ages 6 to 17: At least 60 minutes a day of moderate to vigorous activity, mostly aerobic, with vigorous activity and muscle- and bone-strengthening activity at least 3 days a week

Tips for parents: Activity doesn’t have to mean organized sports. Bike rides, swimming, dancing, playing tag and walking the dog all count. Kids are more active when their parents are too, so plan active family time. See our guide to heart-healthy exercises for ideas that work for the whole family.

2. Build Heart-Healthy Eating Habits and Cut Sugary Drinks

A heart-healthy diet for kids includes plenty of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, nuts, fish and lean proteins, with fewer processed foods, salty snacks, and sweets.

Added sugar deserves special attention. The AHA recommends that children and teens get no more than 25 grams (about 6 teaspoons) of added sugar a day. Children under 2 shouldn’t have added sugars at all. Sugary drinks should be limited to no more than one 8-ounce serving a week.

Tips for parents:

  • Make water and milk the default drinks. A single can of soda can exceed a child’s daily sugar limit.
  • Watch for hidden sugar in flavored yogurts, cereals, granola bars, and sports drinks.
  • Eat family meals together when you can, and involve kids in shopping and cooking.
  • Limit fast food and highly processed snacks, which are often high in salt as well as sugar.

3. Make Sleep a Priority

Sleep is essential for a healthy heart. Too little sleep in children is linked to weight gain, higher blood pressure and problems with blood sugar, as well as trouble concentrating and managing emotions. The AHA now includes sleep as one of its key measures of heart health.

General sleep needs, including naps for younger children:

  • Ages 3 to 5: 10 to 13 hours
  • Ages 6 to 12: 9 to 12 hours
  • Ages 13 to 18: 8 to 10 hours

Tips for parents: Keep consistent bedtimes, even on weekends, and keep phones, tablets and TVs out of the bedroom. Loud snoring with pauses in breathing can be a sign of sleep apnea, which is worth discussing with your pediatrician.

4. Limit Screen Time and Sitting

Hours of sitting in front of screens displaces active play, encourages snacking and can interfere with sleep. Too much sedentary time is linked to higher weight and blood pressure in children.

Tips for parents:

  • Set daily limits for recreational screen time and create screen-free zones, such as the dinner table and bedrooms.
  • Encourage a movement break at least every hour during homework or gaming.
  • Turn off screens at least an hour before bed.
  • Model the habits you want to see. Kids notice how much time parents spend on their phones.

5. Know Your Family History and Check Your Child's Cholesterol

Your family’s heart history is one of the most important clues to your child’s risk. Tell your child’s pediatrician if any close relative has had:

  • A heart attack, stent or bypass before age 55 in men or 65 in women
  • Very high cholesterol, especially LDL above 190 mg/dL
  • Sudden, unexplained death at a young age, including drowning or a car accident with no clear cause
  • Inherited heart conditions such as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, long QT syndrome or other rhythm disorders

Cholesterol screening. Guidelines support checking every child’s cholesterol once between ages 9 and 11 and again between 17 and 21, and as early as age 2 if there’s a family history of early heart disease or very high cholesterol. Yet only about 11% of young people ages 9 to 21 are screened.

Screening matters because of familial hypercholesterolemia (FH), an inherited condition that causes very high LDL cholesterol from birth. It affects about 1 in 250 people, but fewer than 10% are diagnosed. Untreated, FH raises the risk of heart disease about 20-fold, and the first sign can be a heart attack in early adulthood. When FH is found in childhood, treatment, including statins when needed, is safe and can dramatically lower lifelong risk. If a parent has FH, each child has a 50% chance of inheriting it. Learn more about inherited high cholesterol in children from the American Academy of Pediatrics.

6. Protect Them From Tobacco, Vaping and Secondhand Smoke

Secondhand smoke damages children’s blood vessels and is linked to lower good cholesterol and higher heart risk. Vaping is now far more common among teens than smoking. E-cigarettes deliver nicotine, which raises heart rate and blood pressure and is highly addictive to developing brains.

Tips for parents: Keep your home and car smoke-free and vape-free. Talk with your kids early and often about vaping, and if you smoke or vape, quitting is one of the best things you can do for your whole family’s health.

7. Keep Up With Checkups and Know the Warning Signs

Regular well-child visits are a chance to check growth, weight, blood pressure and heart sounds. Blood pressure is typically checked at well visits starting around age 3. High blood pressure in children often causes no symptoms, so routine checks matter. Learn how high blood pressure damages your body.

Before playing organized sports, children and teens should have a pre-participation physical that reviews their personal and family heart history. Our post on athlete’s heart explains what’s normal in young athletes and when to worry.

Warning Signs in Children: When to Call the Doctor

Most chest pain in children isn’t heart-related, but some symptoms always deserve medical attention. Contact your child’s doctor promptly if your child has:

  • Fainting or near-fainting during or right after exercise, which is never normal
  • Chest pain during exercise
  • A racing or pounding heartbeat that comes on suddenly, especially with dizziness
  • Shortness of breath or fatigue that’s out of proportion to activity, or a child who can’t keep up with peers
  • A new heart murmur
  • Poor feeding, sweating with feeding or poor weight gain in an infant
  • Swelling of the legs, feet or around the eyes

Call 911 if a child collapses and isn’t breathing normally. Start CPR and use an AED immediately. Learn the warning signs of life-threatening cardiac emergencies. Every parent, coach and caregiver can benefit from learning hands-only CPR.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can children really have heart disease? Yes. Some children are born with heart defects, and others develop inherited conditions such as familial hypercholesterolemia or cardiomyopathy. Even in healthy children, the early stages of plaque buildup can begin in childhood, especially with obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol or diabetes.

At what age should my child’s cholesterol be checked? Guidelines support a check once between ages 9 and 11 and again between 17 and 21. If there’s a family history of early heart disease or very high cholesterol, testing may start as early as age 2.

Is chest pain in a child a sign of a heart problem? Usually not. Most chest pain in children comes from muscles, the ribs, the lungs or acid reflux. But chest pain during exercise, or chest pain with fainting, a racing heartbeat or shortness of breath, should be evaluated by a doctor.

How much sugar is too much for kids? The American Heart Association recommends no more than 25 grams, about 6 teaspoons, of added sugar a day for children and teens, and none for children under 2. Sugary drinks should be limited to one 8-ounce serving a week.

Do kids need an ECG before playing sports? It depends on your child’s history, symptoms, family history and sport. A pre-participation physical that reviews personal and family heart history is the first step. Your child’s doctor can decide whether further testing is needed.

Healthy Hearts Start at Home

The single most powerful thing parents can do for their children’s hearts is to model healthy habits and know their own risk. Many inherited heart conditions, including familial hypercholesterolemia, are first discovered in a parent, which then leads to testing and early treatment for the children.

At Ascent Cardiology, we care for adults, including parents who want to understand their own heart risk and family history. If you have high cholesterol, a family history of early heart disease or sudden cardiac death, or symptoms of your own, a heart evaluation can protect both you and your family. For a child with heart symptoms, start with your pediatrician, who can refer you to a pediatric cardiologist if needed.

Not sure if your own symptoms need a specialist? See the 10 warning signs you should see a cardiologist, and read statin myths vs. facts.

Request an appointment or call (813) 540-4322.

602 S Audubon Ave, Suite A, Tampa, FL 33609

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