Resting Heart Rate for Children

Heart rate of children is rarely checked and given due importance, taken for granted that their heart rate will be normal. Since they do not have any job or any other factors in their life that might cause them stress, keeping a tab on children's heartbeats is often given a skip by parents and their guardians. Children no doubt are carefree souls and might not suffer from any heart disease or disorder, but there can be a possibility of missing heartbeats, which is also known as, skipped heartbeats or high or low blood pressure.

Blood pressure is the force exerted by blood flowing in blood vessels against its walls. During each heartbeat, it alters between a maximum (systolic) and a minimum (diastolic) pressure. Resting heart rate is the frequency of systolic and diastolic pressure number of the heartbeats i.e. pumps blood to your entire body when you are at rest. The normal resting heart rate for children, or anyone for that matter, should be calculated when they get up in the morning before starting any kind of activity.

Healthy heart rate of an adult is around 60-80 whereas kids have varying blood pressure. Although, the normal heart rate differs with exertion, one does in his activities, other factors like one's fitness level, their weight, the general lifestyle, gender, etc. also matter in determining the heart rate. That's why, children's heart rate differ every single year as they grow.

For measuring the heartbeat, apart from a stethoscope and a sphygmomanometer (which is the equipment usually used to monitor blood pressure with an inflatable band around the upper arm and connected to an equipment which has mercury), heartbeats can be found out by checking the pulse. Arteries close to the skin like the inner wrist, just below an inch of the palm, side of the neck, groin, top of the foot, etc. are the preferable places to check the rate of the heart.

You can also count your pulse for 10 seconds and multiply it by six, or else keep counting till a minute is over and that will give you your pulse rate with detection of any irregularity too in the beats. The latter is more advisable as skipped heart beats can be detected, if any. The different places from where you are measuring the heartbeats have different terminology e.g. the measuring of heart beats per minute from your wrist and neck are called radial and carotid pulse respectively.

Following resting heart rate chart are meant for boys and girls aged from three to twelve. The readings here are the normal systolic pressure at 5th percentile of height and 95th percentile of blood pressure. These table give you the average resting heart rate. The average heart rate range of boys from three to twelve years old and also the readings of what is the normal heart rate range of girls aged between three to twelve years old can also be construed from the information in the table.

Resting Heart Rate for BOYS AGE Systolic Range Diastolic Range 3 yrs 104-113 63-67 4 yrs 106-115 66-71 5 yrs 108-116 69-74 6 yrs 109-117 72-76 7 yrs 110-119 74-78 8 yrs 111-120 75-80 9 yrs 113-121 76-81 10 yrs 114-123 77-82 11 yrs 116-125 78-83 12 yrs 119-127 79-83

Resting Heart Rate for GIRLS AGE Systolic Range Diastolic Range 3 yrs 104-110 65-68 4 yrs 105-111 67-71 5 yrs 107-113 69-73 6 yrs 108-114 71-75 7 yrs 110-116 73-76 8 yrs 112-118 74-78 9 yrs 114-120 75-79 10 yrs 116-122 77-80 11 yrs 118-124 78-83 12 yrs 120-126 79-82

It is important to note here that since children are highly moody and restless, it is very normal for their heartbeats to rise above the normal pulse rate at different times of the day. So do not panic and keep a regular tab on your child's hear rate.