Besides evaluating the child’s medical history, the medical practitioner should conduct a thorough physical examination. The child’s weight is taken, and the body mass index should be calculated to diagnose a hypertensive child. Using the values, the medical practitioner can assess the secondary causes of hypertension.
In a three-year-old patient, several factors raise flags for a secondary cause of hypertension. For instance, the child is too young, not overweight and has a bold high pressure. In children, stage 2 hypertension is defined as diastolic or systolic blood pressure that is higher than 99 percent (Abman, et al., 2015). If the child is in stage 2 hypertension, he or she should be referred to prompt treatment.
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Since the child is very young, non-pharmacologic therapy would be suitable to lower the blood pressure level. This treatment is beneficial since the child will not have to take drugs that significantly affect children and medicines that need some compliance which is difficult to get from a three-year-old child (Lurbe, et al., 2016). If the child is overweight, weight reduction should be a goal. The child should adopt isotonic and aerobic exercise to manage hypertension. The activities reduce body weight and maintain it at the right level. The child should be encouraged to participate in sports.
Since a ten-year child is older, the treatment and management would be different. In this case, a ten-year child can use drugs and can adopt the pharmacologic therapy. The treatment includes antihypertensive drugs suitable for 10-year-olds. The drugs can lower blood pressure. However, hypertension` in a ten-year child should mainly be treated with lifestyle changes (Simonneau, et al. 2013). The changes include a healthy low sodium diet, weight loss, avoidance of alcohol and tobacco and increased physical activity. The child should be encouraged to get into sports and play with other children as a way of managing hyertension. If the child has damaged organs, the treatment and management should consider antihypertensive drugs.
References
Abman, S. H., Hansmann, G., Archer, S. L., Ivy, D. D., Adatia, I., Chung, W. K., ... & Stenmark, K. R. (2015). Pediatric pulmonary hypertension: guidelines from the american heart association and american thoracic society. Circulation .
Lurbe, E., Agabiti-Rosei, E., Cruickshank, J. K., Dominiczak, A., Erdine, S., Hirth, A., ... & Rascher, W. (2016). 2016 European Society of Hypertension guidelines for the management of high blood pressure in children and adolescents. Journal of hypertension , 34 (10), 1887-1920.
Simonneau, G., Gatzoulis, M. A., Adatia, I., Celermajer, D., Denton, C., Ghofrani, A., ... & Olschewski, H. (2013). Updated clinical classification of pulmonary hypertension. Journal of the American College of Cardiology , 62 (25 Supplement), D34-D41.
