Living a Life With Dysautonomia in Children

There are many conditions that can happen to your body over time. Sometimes you need to worry about a health condition such as heart attack, diabetes, and even high blood pressure. These conditions can easily be fixed if you take the right steps for your health. But some other conditions, such as dysautonomia in children. Here is some information about this condition to help you understand what is going on and get the help that is needed.

What is Dysautonomia?

This is a simple term for a complex condition. In fact, this is actually a group of conditions that will be caused by some malfunction in the autonomic nervous system. This area of the brain will regulate all of your unconscious functions in the body. There are a lot of functions in the body that you do not even think about. These functions would include digesting food, the heart pumping, and you breathing. When the ANS is not working properly, these functions will not work the way they should.

This malfunction is going to cause a lot of symptoms that are debilitating to the individual. Just because you do not think about these functions of the body does not mean they are unimportant for you to properly live.

There are a lot of symptoms that come with dysautonomia in children. The main hallmark of the different forms of this disorder is orthostatic intolerance, or the inability of the sufferer to stay upright. Some cases of this disorder will be mild while others will impair the individuals ability to live life effectively. Each case will be unique and your treatment will be individualized depending on the kinds of symptoms present.

Dysautonomia in children

When this disorder shows up in children, it will strike during adolescents and often right after the child went through a time of growing very quickly. It is more likely to happen in women, with the ratio being 5 to 1. In some cases, the patient will report that the symptoms will show up suddenly after they undergo a trauma, immunizations, or a viral illness. Some patients will see the symptoms come on more slowly.

In some really rare cases, dysautonomia in children can start at birth. Most of these cases are life threatening but they are not genetic so determining children who may have this condition at birth is difficult. While this variety of the disorder are not genetic, there is a type of dysautonomia in children that is connected to genetics call Familial Dysautonomia. This type of the disorder is found in those with Ashkenazi Jewish ancestory.

Many of the symptoms of dysautonomia in children are not easy for the untrained eye to see. The child with this disorder will look healthy to the people around them. This is because the symptoms of the disorder are often occurring inside the body so they will not be visible until later times to outsiders. Often the symptoms will be mild, but a stressor as well as physical activity can make it worse. The children with this disorder often have issues with simple tasks that others take for granted such as getting from bed in the morning.

Since others have issues with recognizing the symptoms of dysautonomia in children, they often do not believe a problem is present. This can make it difficult for the child who is not able to keep up with their peers and do things that are expected of them.

Symptoms

There are a number of symptoms that come with the dysautonomia in children. Each patient will get different symptoms and different severity with the disorder. Some of the symptoms a child with this disorder may experience include:

• Migraines
• Issues with vision blurring
• Cognitive impairment
• Convulsions
• Frequent urination
• Anxiety that is overwhelming
• Shortness of the breath
• Nausea
• Insomnia
• Problems with the gastrointestinal tract
• Dizziness and fainting
• Issues with not being able to exercise because of fatigue
• Issues with staying upright
• Wide swings and big drops with the blood pressure
• Chest pain
• Slow or really fast heart rate

Those who deal with this condition have a tough life in front of them Because of the symptoms they are going through, it is difficult to get through a lot of the things that others take for granted. Staying upright can be a challenge as well as feeling dizzy all of the time or not having the ability to think correctly can be issues as well. Getting help from a professional in this field can help make the symptoms better and to manage them at the same time.