Heart murmurs are sounds produced by the flow of blood through your child's heart. They are recognized by your pediatrician while listening to your child's heart with a stethoscope. He or she can usually tell whether a murmur is harmless or indicates a heart condition.

If your pediatrician says your child has an innocent heart murmur, it may seem alarming. An innocent murmur, however, is just what the name implies -- innocent. It means your child's heart is normal. He or she will need no medications and will have no cardiac symptoms. Your child can be as active as any other well child should be.

Innocent murmurs are very common, occuring in over half of children at some point in their childhood. They may also disappear and then reappear at various times. They are usually easier to hear when your heart is stimulated, such as with a fever, after drinking caffienated products, or after exercise. Most, but not all innocent murmurs disappear for good by the time a child becomes an adult. Regardless of whether the innocent murmur is present or gone, however, your child's heart is normal.

Sometimes heart murmurs are hard to interpret. Your pediatrician may need to consult a pediatric cardiologist if he or she is having difficulty in deciding whether a murmur is innocent or not. In addition to an examination other tests may be necessary to evaluate your child's heart. The pediatric cardiologist can explain these tests and their results to you.

The American Heart Association has collected several questions and answers for patients with innocent murmurs that can be found here.