Help! 6 year old with thyroid problems???

[kittywitty]

The thyroid panel on my 6 yo came back. I forget which number it is (I have to wait until they call back and ask) is 617 when it should be .4. I'm assuming this is hypothyroidism as she is very short with no energy, constipation, rough dry skin, etc.? We thought it was Celiac's but they ran the thyroid panel just in case and we're waiting for the hand x-ray to come back and her Celiac's panel. They called in a synthroid prescription for her. Please spam me with any info you have on this-especially more natural ways to help and dietary helps. We're going to Riley's but it will be a few months before they can get her in. I'm terrified. My mom has had hyperthryoid issues all her life and has thyroid cancer right now. I had nodes on my thyroid that caused me issues about a year before I became pregnant with her.

[coyotemist]

Many many children have low thryroid, it's usually due to something that happens during development in the womb.  My one friend whose son is low thyroid, their family has thyroid problems, too, but like you, they are all different.  He's been on supplementation (can't remember which brand) since birth, and he is doing great.

They've tried some natural methods to increase his thyroid production, none of which helped at all.  So he takes his little pills everyday, and is doing great.

I really hope that the medication helps your daughter!

[Marnica]

I would not do t4 only meds starting so young, Id look into armour or another natural alternative

www.stopthethyroidmadness.com

[kittywitty]

Well, she's incredibly short & small, so I'm not going to hold off on starting meds if it will help all her symptoms. But I will check out that book. Do you have to buy it or is it at libraries?

[tanyalynn]

Regardless of what the celiac panel shows, I'd remove gluten.  Gluten has a bad rep for exacerbating thyroid problems--it wasn't good for me, and I don't have celiac, just gluten issues. 

Consider a multivit with a decent amount of selenium.  Selenium's important for changing T4 into T3 and having enough is one step toward using the Synthroid.  And if they've run an antibody test and it's elevated, another reason to either supplement selenium or remove gluten or both.  There's a study floating around that used supplemental selenium to reduce antibody levels noticeably.  Or find some brazil nuts--it can be hard to find ones that taste good, they go rancid easily--and eat 1 or 2 per day.  And anecdotally I've read of people removing gluten and having antibody levels come down. 

In general, the ASD community discusses thyroid issues in kids quite a bit, so that's a general place to start looking for solutions. 

Nutrient deficiencies were significantly involved in my becoming hypo and my kids grew in me, so they were low on the same nutrients, but so far as I can tell now, they're ok re: thyroid function.  At some point, read some of The Iodine thread, iodine's also important for thyroid function but some people feel bad (headaches, body aches, that type of stuff) when they start it, so you'd want to either experiment on yourself first, or go really slow and have supportive nutrients around, or both.  I figure I consumed about the same amount of iodine as other people, but I think stresses in me eventually meant that I need more, and do well on more, whereas people like my DH seem fine. 

[kittywitty]

Do you know any soy and gluten free multivitamins with Selenium? I will look for Brazil nuts but last time dh wanted some I only found them mixed with Cashews (and one of my daughters is very allergic to cashews).

I will look for the iodine thread.

I think I will cut gluten. I've tried before and almost had a nervous breakdown (during elim diets during bf). But more things are inexpensively available on amazon now, it looks like, so that should help. I will have to get dh on board with this and that will be hard. I just googled and found a bunch of celiac and gluten related info related to hypothyroidism, so that should help. They ran a celiac's blood test on her. What if it comes back negative? How long to go gluten free for there to be results?

[deditus]

Thorne Research is a good brand of vits but the vit e in the multis is still soy derived. My dd reacts to it so we supp stuff separately. I think the trace minerals has selenium in it. You can open the capsules and mix it in something if she can't swallow it.

[kittywitty]

My doc got ahold of a pediatric endocrinologist. Apparently he called back what she said was "FREAKING OUT" because that was the highest number he had seen on a kid her age and he was kind of surprised she was alive and functioning. Then he wanted to know whether we had a homebirth and never got the PKU. But I had her at the hospital and she had the PKU (all of my kids did). He was worried it was congenital-but it's not since her PKU was fine.

We're starting her on 25 of synthroid for a week, then 50 for 3 weeks and rechecking her bloodwork. Her preliminary results from the x-ray came back and showed 3years, 6 months as development so she is VERY behind. See, momma's instincts were right-she's not just "little". But the celiac's test might not be back for up to 2 more weeks and we're trying to avoid a biopsy. Luckily dh is right on board with going GF. Now I need to figure that one out! I have to be dairy free, one of my dd's is veggie, plus now gluten free for the two young girls (my 3 yo has the same skin problems and low weight, so we're going to wait until all of the test results come back before we have her tested, too, for celiac's). So looks like I get to cook 4 versions of dinner every night!

[tanyalynn]

http://www.totaldiscountvitamins.com/product/26026/thorne_research

This mineral supp is a fairly good one, and one capsule has 50 mcg of selenium and a fairly reasonable dosage of other stuff for a kid.  Thorne also has stand-alone selenium supps as well--you'd need to decide how much you think is necessary/safe (too much over a long time period is toxic, like most minerals), I think 50 or 100 mcg is still in the reasonable range.  If your DD doesn't already swallow pills, starting with smaller capsules that you coat with something tasty like maple syrup can help with the learning process.  Once they learn, at least for my kids, moving up to adult-size pills was a pretty easy process, or for stuff that I need to open the capsule for, hiding it in between 2 layers of applesauce and just taking it as 1 bite is another option. 

I like Thorne because it has real folate instead of folic acid, it's important for some people--not an issue just with the multi-mineral above, but if you want a vitamin supplement (from wherever), it IS something to consider. 

re: gluten, how quick someone responds is an individual thing.  I felt better in a day and a half but my son took 3 months to show any change.  I'd think you'd want to keep it out for a while, get to a steady, stable dose of thyroid supp, and then see if adding it back in changes her response--or see if other stuff has changed in the meantime.  For my DD, weird stuff changed, she stopped wetting the bed at night and she started napping again, stuff like that, plus digestive improvements which seems more normal for a food.

Have you considered GF for the entire family, or is there a reason you don't want to do that?  Because oftentimes, it seems like people in a family have related issues, and similar solutions help even if the individual manifestations of the problems are different--all four of us have gluten issues, but different ways of showing it, and DH is the slowest to show improvement.  But if you're considering bloodwork for celiac for another family member, you _do_ want to stay eating a fair amount of gluten til the test. 

[Kindermama]

I recommend taking her to a classical homeopath!

[kittywitty]

I think I'm going to try for my 6 yo (with thyroid issues), me, and my 3 yo. The rest of the family would mutiny! My ds is supposed to see a neurologist in 2 weeks, I'll see about making him go gf after that if it isn't Hirschsprung's.

Seeing a homeopath-absolutely none around here and WAY out of my price range.

[coyotemist]

My yDS has a bunch of weird issues, and nobody can tell me what caused them or if all of them together mean something.  Our doc only tested for IgE's on foods, not IgG's.  His celiac test was negative, but his biopsies showed changes in the tissues.  No one knows what that means, but we do know he does better gluten free. 

So for us, watching our guy tells us more than any of the tests did.  It's frustrating, and I hope for something better for you guys.  However, know that sometimes you have to experiment with things despite what the test results say, and you might have improvement.

[kittywitty]

It looks like she needs abx for a urine strep infection, too. Definitely not something we were expecting. *sigh*

[coyotemist]

Ugh, hugs!  It'll get easier once you know what you are dealing with.  It just takes time, I hope she catches up soon!