Hi, my 10 yo daughter has had a mix of symptoms over the last year e.g. tummy pains, restless leg, pins and needles, light headedness/dizziness. The tummy pains have happened since she was quite young and was diagnosed with "tummy migraines" a few years ago i.e. no other obvious diagnosis. I think there is maybe a small gluten intolerance, Coeliac has been ruled out based on blood tests.
Additionally, I've noticed her becoming more anxious over the last year as well. I don't think this is uncommon in children her age, but with the other symptoms, plus the fact that I have PA and Graves, alarm bells have started ringing for me.
Just wondering if anyone on here is able to help read her "normal" blood test results please to let me know if there's something I need to be aware of. I've attached a picture of all results, but some are here:
Serum B12 - 591 (130-900) (Dr said this is normal for children but I remember being told years back that some experts consider 500 to be someone declining and in need?)
Serum Ferritin - 28 (15-300)
Serum Folate - 16.8 (>3)
Vit D - 44LM / D3 72 nmol/L (think I've written this correctly)
Serum TSH - 1.29 (0.30-4.40)
Serum free T4 - 14.7 (9-19.1)
No T3 reported.
Thanks in advance for you help. This post will show in the PA group and the Thyroid group.
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Rustypoo
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Hi. It’s sooo hard with our kids. Her thyroid looks ok but her ferritin is quite low but in range!! My daughters dropped to 11 so I’d get that up as it can cause dizziness, fatigue, shortness of breath. In fact they told me daughter was asthmatic!!! Not had inhaler since supplementing iron!!
Her blood count is a bit low too. That should be repeated in my opinion, it can happen as normal response so don’t worry too much.
If you have Grave's and PA, then her antibodies should be tested. There's nothing there to suggest Grave's but she could have Hashi's. TPO and Tg antibodies should be tested.
I don't know if results for children are read differently from results for adults, but going by the ranges and suggestions normally made here with adult results:
Serum B12 - 591 (130-900) (Dr said this is normal for children but I remember being told years back that some experts consider 500 to be someone declining and in need?)
According to an extract from the book, "Could it be B12?" by Sally M. Pacholok:
"We believe that the 'normal' serum B12 threshold needs to be raised from 200 pg/ml to at least 450 pg/ml because deficiencies begin to appear in the cerebrospinal fluid below 550".
"For brain and nervous system health and prevention of disease in older adults, serum B12 levels should be maintained near or above 1000 pg/ml."
However, an Active B12 test measures the amount of free/active B12 that is available to be taken up by the cells, whereas a serum B12 test measures the total B12 and doesn't differentiate. So her serum B12 test isn't that bad. I don't think the NHS normally does Active B12 so it might be an idea to check for signs of B12 deficiency here:
This is low but looking at her MCV, MCH and Haemoglobin, they don't appear to suggest iron deficiency anaemia so it may just be a case of raising her ferritin level but an iron panel would be a good idea as that would check her actual serum iron whereas ferritin is the iron store. Symptoms of low ferritin are contained within this article (ignore any reference to supplements, I'm only linking for the information about symptoms)
This article came up when Googling "Low ferritin in children" (and it does appear that your range is a lot wider than the range given for a child here:
Vit D - 44LM / D3 72 nmol/L (think I've written this correctly)
I have not seen referece to 44LM before, only 25OH Vit D. The Vit D Council recommends a level of 125nmol/L and the Vit D Society recommends a level of 100-150nmol/L.
Article about low eosinophils/monocytes in children here:
Her TSH is neither high (which might suggest hypothyroidism) nor low (which might suggest hyperthyroidism), it's at a nice level. When interpreting adults' results, we say that in a normal healthy person the TSH would be no more than 2-ish.
Serum free T4 - 14.7 (9-19.1)
This is 56% through range. With a normal healthy person we would say that FT4 would usually be around mid-range-ish.
Due to the family history, I agree with Greygoose about getting antibodies tested.
Hi Rustypoo, as she is 10 it may be that she is working up to starting her periods, as a teacher of children your daughter's age I had quite a few girls who exhibited symptoms like dizziness, fatigue and unexplained tummy pains, often the symptoms pre-dated the periods starting by many months.
Any hormonal changes can also cause anxiety.
This is just a suggestion, do check out others suggestions but starting her periods might be one reason why she is feeling unwell.
Her white cell count and her symptoms are the things that stand out. It may be worth taking something like Neurobalance from Igennus - suitable for children - that combines zinc, p5p (absorbable b6) and Magnesium. All three will help with white blood cells and should improve her concentration and combat fatigue. Also wrt the tummy pains consider dairy intolerance ... Many children these days have problems with dairy if they have been on antibiotics or have Candida overgrowth.
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