Everyone’s different when it comes to their capacity to exercise or play sports, but if your child can’t do anything physically active without severe physical distress, they might have exercise intolerance. At Newport Children’s Medical Group, in Newport Beach, Irvine, Costa Mesa, and Laguna Beach, California, the expert pediatricians provide the diagnosis and treatments your child needs to help them enjoy a more active lifestyle. If you think your child might have exercise intolerance, call Newport Children’s Medical Group today.
Exercise Intolerance Q & A
What is exercise intolerance?
Exercise intolerance means being unable to do a reasonable amount of physical activity without experiencing problems that make it impossible to continue. Exercise intolerance is an umbrella term that covers a range of conditions.
Tolerance to exercise is, in some respects, a very individual matter, as everyone has a different capacity when it comes to physical exertion.
What your child’s doing can also influence their tolerance – if they’re doing an activity they enjoy they might expend far more energy with far more ease.
Physical fitness is also an individual thing, and it can increase and decline according to how physically active your child is at any time. In all these cases, however, there’s an ability to do a degree of physical exercise at certain times.
For some children, all physical activity leaves them breathless and incapable of continuing, which is the definition of exercise intolerance.
What conditions can cause exercise intolerance?
Problems with any of your child’s organs could cause exercise intolerance. If your child’s kidneys aren’t functioning properly, for example, or their liver, they aren’t going to be able to exert themselves as they should.
Breathing problems are a significant cause of exercise intolerance in children. Asthma, for instance, is widespread and can cause severe constriction of the airways.
Your child might have a condition called exercise-induced asthma, in which the trigger for an asthma attack is physical activity that makes them breathe through their mouth.
Heart problems can also cause breathing difficulties and general weakness and fatigue. It’s possible for a child to have an undiagnosed congenital heart problem. Congenital means they were born with it, but heart conditions can sometimes be hard to detect when they don’t affect the heart’s rhythm.
If your child faints when they exercise or experiences severe muscle weakness and tingling sensations, it could be a heart problem. To find out for sure what’s causing your child’s exercise intolerance, you should visit Newport Children’s Medical Group.
How is exercise intolerance diagnosed?
Your provider at Newport Children’s Medical Group needs to carry out a physical exam and talk to you and your child about their symptoms. Your child might need to exercise in a lab where your provider can observe them and evaluate their heart and lung function.
The treatment your child needs for exercise intolerance depends on the cause. Once they diagnose what’s causing your child’s exercise intolerance, your provider can recommend the best course of treatment.
Call Newport Children’s Medical Group today to learn more about exercise intolerance.