Iodine’s impact on babies cognitive development when breastfeeding mother has hashimoto

[Ralphie1]

Hi

Does anyone know if iodine intake for a woman who is pregnant and then breastfeeding is only needed for production of thyroid hormones or does iodine itself contribute to babies brain development

I don’t eat foods with iodine generally or supplement as I have hashimoto and aware it can make it worse. I take levo and T3

I have a 9 week old and just want to make sure I’m not impairing her cognitively by probably having having low iodine levels through breastfeeding her as read different things and health professionals never seem that sure

Thanks

Kate

[Jazzw]

You’re taking replacement thyroid hormones—part of the structure of replacement thyroid hormones is iodine.

What makes you think you’re low in iodine?

[Ralphie1 in reply to Jazzw]

Thanks for your reply. So if you are taking Levothyroxine you shouldn’t be deficient in iodine if not having hardly any in diet? Find it difficult find any good information on it or can be conflicting

[SlowDragon Administrator]

On separate issue

Presumably the health visitor/midwife has explained that a breast fed baby will need vitamin D drops

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK]

The baby does need adequate iodine. Because they need to make their own thyroid hormone.

The reason I have waited a while to respond is simple - that much I think I know. But how much is enough, and other helpful information is not at my fingertips.

I know this link is to the USA but sometimes I've found they do some good documents:

cdc.gov/breastfeeding/breas...

[humanbean]

Every nutrient that an adult needs is also required by the fetus in the womb, babies and infants. I have read that iodine deficiency can reduce IQ in offspring.

[humanbean]

If you want to search for research papers and more scholarly articles :

Google Scholar : scholar.google.co.uk/

Pubmed : pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/

Medscape : medscape.com/today

[Hidden in reply to humanbean]

Can you make this a separate post so I can 'save' it please?

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK in reply to Hidden]

Those links (and many more) are in Appendix A to my Vade Mecum document.

If you can, you might find it useful to download it.

helvella - Vade Mecum for Thyroid

The term vade mecum means:

1. A referential book such as a handbook or manual.

2. A useful object, constantly carried on one’s person.

Please don't get put off by the number of pages!

Nor by the fact it is targeted at people interested in thyroid issues. Much of its contents could be of use to many involved in health issues. Things like abbreviations, lists, general reference information.

In particular, it is not intended that you sit and read the document. Just that you download it and know you can look things up.

If there is anything you'd like me to add, let me know.

Not everything is in this one document - my major medicines document is still separate!

From Dropbox:

dropbox.com/s/vp5ct1cwc03bl...

From Google Drive:

drive.google.com/file/d/1ZW...

[Ralphie1]

Thanks for your replies, have try and do some research