Preventing High Blood Pressure Begins in Childhood

Send your child down a heart-healthy path. Ask the pediatrician to measure your child’s blood pressure every year, starting at age 3.

And to prevent current and future health issues, help your child take on these three big hypertension risk factors.

Blood pressure risk: Your kid spends more time in front of the TV than playing on the jungle gym.

Heart-healthy solution: Children and teens should be active at least 60 minutes every day. Help yours find activities they enjoy.

Blood pressure risk: Your child is overweight or obese.

Heart-healthy solution: If you think your child has weight problems, talk with their pediatrician, who can help you develop a healthy exercise and eating plan for your family. Most children shouldn’t go on diets. But they should eat lots of whole grains, fruits and vegetables, and cut back on sugar, salt and saturated fat.

Blood pressure risk: Your child has an illness or takes medicine that causes high blood pressure.

Heart-healthy solution: Certain conditions, such as kidney disease, can cause hypertension in children. Follow the pediatrician’s instructions for treating these problems.