6. Tachycardia
Tachycardia is when a person’s heart pumps or beats faster than their normal or the average for their age group. For a person with pneumonia, this is usually an effect of the shortness of breath. Since there is less air taken in, there is less oxygen to distribute, so the oxygen needs to be distributed faster to meet the demands of the body and its organs. It is the blood that carries the oxygen to distribute it across the body and its organs. For the blood to distribute faster, the heart has to pump faster.
The average heart rates per age group are as follows:
Adults will normally average 60 to 80 beats per minute,
Children aged 2 to 15 years old average 80 to 100 beats per minute,
Children aged 1 to 2 years old average 100 to 120 beats per minute,
Infants below 1 year old average 120 t 190 beats per minute.
To check a person’s heart rate, you can usually find a pulse to feel at their temples, side of their neck (carotid pulse), or the inside of the wrist. For babies, the best place to feel for a pulse would usually be the inside of their upper arm. Count the number of beats while timing 30 seconds. Just double the number and you have their number of heartbeats per minute.
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