Pneumonia in children is mainly due to respiratory or lung issues. But child heart diseases can also lead to recurrent cough & cold that finally leads to pneumonia if heart problem is not treated on time.

There are various kinds of holes in the child heart that are present since birth. These holes allow extra blood flow to the both lungs and its alveoli, leading to extra fluid collection in lungs structure. This is known as pulmonary congestion which can leads to various types of bacterial or viral infections leading to bacterial or viral pneumonia.

Examples of holes in the heart are:

Large ASD, VSD, AVSD, PDA etc (In these, child is not blue in colour).

TGA, Truncus: Child can be blue in colour.

We need to address these heart problems aggressively so that child can be prevented from ill effects of pneumonia like hospital admission, failure to gain weight etc.

Please have a look in common cardiac condition section of www.childrenheartcare.com for more information.