My 3 1/2 yo girl is my heart baby. She was diagnosed at 20 months with coarctation of the aorta, pda and a bicuspid valve. She had her open-heart surgery in 2007 at 23 months. It was successful and she's been doing good since. Her last follow up was in October 2008. She still has pulmonary hypertension, high blood pressure in her lungs, but not extremely high. I've noticed recently, a few weeks ago, that she does this weird thing where she holds her breath for 2-3 seconds and then releases it with a noice, like a grunt almost. And she sometimes will seem out of breath when doing calm activities. She is able to run and dance without having to catch her breath. When she sings she seems all breathy, though. Is this just some odd habit that she's formed or is it related to her heart? We would prefer not to have to bug our very busy Pediatric Cardiologist unless necessary. Thank you!! :)
Here is a video showing this breathing. It is 35 seconds long and she starts about halfway through the video.