I now have the print out of my 9 year olds bloods. He had blood taken as he was having frequent diarrhoea , Anyway his results came back with a TSH of 4,8 range 0.27 to 4.20 . His T4 was 15, range 12 to 22. His B12 seemed a bit low at 511 to me, range 180 to 900 and his ferritin was 61, range 33 to 490.
Folate was 10.6 range 4,40 to 20.
He does not seem symptomatic of hypothyroid. He is lively, slim and happy with lots of hair on his head, He does not complain of cold.
The advise is to retest in 3 months, should I try to push for treatment. How should I approach this. I am not too concerned as he is not symptomatic. Should I be.
SCH is a very common finding in children, and several etiologies have been identified. Natural history studies indicate that over time, the majority of elevated TSH levels either revert to normal or remain mildly elevated. Children with persistent TSH elevation may be viewed as normal variants in which there is a stable equilibrium allowing normal thyroid hormone production in the presence of mild TSH elevation. The number of cases in which progression to OH has been small in all studies was reviewed, so occasional monitoring rather than immediate treatment may be the preferred strategy. Studies on children with mutations of the TSH-receptor suggest that some SCH patients without features of AIT may have increased TSH due to thyroid resistance to the effect of TSH. Preliminary studies suggest that treatment of SCH has no beneficial effect on growth, but additional studies are needed to determine if there are any measurable benefits (aside from the lowering of TSH) to treating such children with l-thyroxine.
I am not a medical professional and this information is not intended to be a substitute for medical guidance from your own doctor. Please check with your personal physician before applying any of these suggestions.
I'm no expert on paediatric thyroid problems, but assuming there is no reason to treat your child differently to an adult :
Since he has no obvious hypo symptoms and seems to be reasonably fit and happy, don't push for treatment now, but make sure not to forget a retest in three months.
When you get the re-test done, get the test done as early in the morning as possible. If you can manage it try to delay giving him breakfast until after the blood draw. He can (and should) drink some water - getting tested while dehydrated is probably not a great idea.
Many hypo people have constipation, and getting treated resolves it. Since your child already has diarrhoea, you might wonder whether it will get worse if he gets treated for hypothyroidism. This is purely anecdotal, and therefore has no particular value... But I suffered chronic diarrhoea for many years before treating myself for hypothyroidism. And hypo treatment reduced my problem enormously, it didn't make my diarrhoea worse.
Is there any chance you could feed your son lots of foods which improve iron levels? There are lists galore on the internet of foods which are high in iron :
It is possible your son might be gluten intolerant or coeliac and that is causing the diarrhoea. Has he ever been tested for coeliac disease? If he has and it came back negative, then it might be worth experimenting with going gluten-free for three months to see if it helps anyway. Another reason for suggesting this is that my iron absorption was poor, and it improved a lot when I gave up gluten, and your son's iron levels definitely need help. Don't give up gluten until coeliac testing has been done because it distorts the results of the test.
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