New to this

[FJGDpurpleflower]

Hi my 10 year old daughter was diagnosed with hypothyroidism in June. Her t4 and tsh were both unreadable when they checked it. Her TSH had come down to 25 about 6 weeks ago and has now gone up to 35. Her t4 is in the normal range at 14. They have increased her thyroxine to 75. How will this affect her t4 with it being in the normal range. Will it overload her body with t4. I have very little to no knowledge about this. Thanks for reading.

[jimh111]

It would help if you could post her blood test results with the reference intervals (numbers in brackets). A typical reference interval for fT4 is around 10.0 - 22.0 in which case 14 would not be too high. Normally levothyroxine patients do well when their fT4 is around 18 or 20 but not higher. This would give a TSH around 0.5 or 2.0, something like that. These would be good targets to aim for initially but it's very important to go by how she feels which is a bit tricky with a 10 year old who may not have a lot of experience and be fluent at expressing how she is doing. So, you will need to act as her advocate with the doctors and make sure they pay attention to how she is, as opposed to just the blood test results.

A TSH of 35 shows she needs more levothyroxine.

[FJGDpurpleflower in reply to jimh111]

Thanks for replying her ft4 is 14 normal range 11 to 27. Her TSH 34.2 normal range 0.3 to 5.0. I've said to her she needs to be telling me if she feels different in anyway. I also let the school know they have increased it so they can let me know if she appears different at school. Not sure how to upload a photo of results, sorry.

[Jazzw]

If anything, she’s going to need more levothyroxine soon. Doctors rarely seem to test the most important thyroid hormone - FT3. T3 is the active thyroid hormone and levothyroxine (a synthetic version of T4) converts to T3. Your daughter will start to feel better once enough T4 is converting to T3.

See here: thyroiduk.org/tuk/about_the...

[FJGDpurpleflower in reply to Jazzw]

They just increased it from 50 to 75 on Tues as her TSH increased. I don't think she's ever had her t3 tested is this something I should be asking the consultant about?

[jimh111 in reply to FJGDpurpleflower]

She will almost certainly need her dose increased to 100 mcg but I guess they are being a bit conservative perhaps because she is young. Make sure she has a follow up scheduled for four to six weeks. Her school work will be affected, I guess you have already told the school.

[FJGDpurpleflower in reply to jimh111]

Yes the school are aware of this. She was in hospital for 10days in June with severe constipation, this is when we found out about it. I think her school work has already improved and she has her energy back, she's like a different girl, she's actually handled the whole thing better than me.

[knitwitty in reply to FJGDpurpleflower]

Hi I just wanted to send you best wishes and say that you have come to the best place for information on issues associated with the thyroid.

The people on this forum are always helpful and reassuring and they can point you in the right direction with regards to what questions, tests and treatment you should be asking your daughters GP for.

I know from personal experience just how difficult it is when your child is unwell as My eldest son experienced severe health problems when he first went away to university, you want to make things better and you often feel impotent and unsure of where to turn.

Whatever help you need here, ask away and someone knowledgeable will come along and point you in the right direction. Nothing is too trivial or too complex there will be somebody along to help.

I hope your daughter is soon feeling much better, and having you looking out for her is the best thing she can have.

Hugs and best wishes.

[FJGDpurpleflower in reply to knitwitty]

Thank you x

[knitwitty in reply to FJGDpurpleflower]

you're very welcome

[Kipsy]

I’m so very sorry to hear about your daughter. If she ever needs to get fingerprick tests done privately (eg if the GP won’t test her T3 which is essential to know so that you can see if her body is converting T4, the inactive hormone, to T3 which is the active form) then Blue Horiizons are happy to deal with children whereas Medichecks won’t. Wishing you all the very best.

[FJGDpurpleflower]

Hi

Just thought I would let you all know. My daughters blood results are normal for the first time since June, yippee with a TSH of 0.59 and a T4 of 21. She is still on 75 daily and is what I would call a normal 10 year old again, the cheek is back!!