Now that she’s 7, Olivia Edwards gets her blood pressure checked without a whimper.
“She didn’t like it when she was little, but she’s fine now,” said her mother, Sara Edwards of Lake Wales, while Olivia finished her checkup at Kinder Clinic in Winter Haven, part of Nemours Children’s Primary Care.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends children be screened for high blood pressure, from age 3 on, during their annual well child visits.
Although consistently elevated blood pressure or hypertension is rare in children Olivia’s age, it can occur. If it does, it’s often linked to obesity, but could signal undetected kidney disease, congenital heart disease or other problems.