Children Can Have High Blood Pressure, Too. Here’s What to Know.

High blood pressure – sometimes referred to as “the silent killer” because it can do serious heart and brain damage before symptoms appear – is common in adults. But what about children? Among U.S. children and adolescents, up to five percent have high blood pressure – also known as hypertension – and as many as 18 percent have elevated blood pressure, according to a scientific statement from the American Heart Association published recently in its journal Hypertension. Until recently, medical experts weren’t focused on hypertension as a childhood issue, says Dr. Bonita Falkner, writing committee chair for the statement. In fact, they weren’t even sure how to diagnose it in children and didn’t look for it unless the child had an underlying condition – such as kidney disease – that might cause blood pressure levels to climb. “It was not common practice to measure blood pressure in children with no symptoms, so it took a while to figure out what was normal or not,” according to Falkner, professor emeritus of medicine and pediatrics at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. Falkner says concerns about childhood hypertension have increased as childhood obesity levels in the U.S. have reached alarming levels. Being overweight...