3 year old

[Cazlook]

HiGdd has the following

Tsh 2.62 range .7-4.17

T4 13.1 range 10-14.3

She is also anaemic

Any advice you can give on the thyroid is welcome

Cx

[FallingInReverse]

Hi Cazlook Welcome to the forum! You have come to the right place to get your questions answered about anything thyroid related : )

It would be helpful to have a little clarification on your post. Are those blood test results for a three-year-old?

Can you tell us more about what precipitated the blood tests, how they were explained to you, and if your child's pediatrician has recommended any treatment?

[cazlooks in reply to FallingInReverse]

hi, our grand children get annual blood tests because they have a predisposition to childhood thyroid issues. They were not explained to me, also the gp neglected to mention she is anaemic, fortunately, I picked up on that and she's being tested again for these. However, I was not sure of the significance re thyroid function.

[helvella Administrator in reply to cazlooks]

I am confused.

The original post was made by Cazlook but the replies have been by cazlooks - I guess the same person?

It does make life easier for all to only use one member name!

[cazlooks in reply to helvella]

this is because I asked whilst at the hospital, not at home, I had to make another account to access healthunlocked because phones and age 63. Did you have an answer to my initial question?

[helvella Administrator in reply to cazlooks]

Right - that explains. While I suspected same person, I did wonder if it might have been someone else in the family, or something like that.

Are those ranges specific paediatric ranges for the age?

If they are not, then any suggestions based on them might not be valid. The FT4 range is definitely unusual - and that makes me wonder whether it is age-specific. Or maybe a typo?

I assume you mean she has iron-deficient anaemia? If so, that itself can affect the ability to affect the thyroid side of things to work properly. Definitely need to get that treated asap - even if it takes a long time to fully resolve.

Definitely looks like she might be becoming hypothyroid but in children, numbers can change quite quickly.

[cazlooks in reply to helvella]

the ranges given were on the bloods results form so I assume they are relevant to paediatric results; we are getting further iron and vit d tests.

Why do you think there may be a thyroid problem?

[Regenallotment Ambassador in reply to cazlooks]

Check with a child specialist but what I’ve picked up over time here is that normal TSH is closer to 1. So even though your GDD has TSH in range it’s heading towards the top of the range given. Based on these, not hypothyroid yet but keep on testing. Iron deficiency anaemia (low ferritin) can (in my own experience) send the thyroid more hypo. 🌱

[Regenallotment Ambassador in reply to Regenallotment]

Oh and was it early morning? A test later in the day might show up lower.

[helvella Administrator in reply to cazlooks]

Because TSH is rarely above 2.5 in healthy people with no thyroid issues.

Because I am not convinced there isn't something odd about the FT4 range. I can't remember ever seeing such a narrow range. More typical (at least for adults) might be 12 to 22.

Have a look here for a discussion about paediatric ranges.

thyroidpatients.ca/2022/07/...

My guess (and I am absolutely not an expert) is that 10-24.3 would be more likely as a range than 10-14.3.

Further, you would not be the first person to think they were given the paediatric ranges but actually got the lab's standard adult ranges. You have to check.

The interpretation of 13.1 is completely dependent on this. It is either well up the range, or perilously close to the bottom.

Graph taken from linked article

[FallingInReverse in reply to helvella]

Best chart ever! Thank you for sharing.

[humanbean]

What is a Gdd?

[cazlooks in reply to humanbean]

granddaughter, sorry

[humanbean]

Just to give readers an example in this thread of thyroid reference ranges in the young, this link gives thyroid ranges for adults and children and also pregnant women :

frontierpathology.nhs.uk/pu...

And note the paediatric ranges are different to those in adults all the way up to and including 20 years old.

[FallingInReverse in reply to humanbean]

Hi humanbean I’m getting a web browser warning that that sites certificate isn’t valid. Wondering if I could ask you to screenshot the ranges and reply with them?

My 17 year old daughter (who I’ve posted about) is working through iron issues, but I’m also watching her Ts. All this talk about “over 2.5” points to hypo - may or may not apply to her, but it’s helpful for me to see the distribution for people under 20 as a glimmer of hope she doesn’t have what I have.

[humanbean in reply to FallingInReverse]

Image 1 of 4

TFT data - where it comes from

[humanbean in reply to FallingInReverse]

This could take a while. I'm absolutely useless at image manipulation. I couldn't copy just the text because HU does horrific things to the formatting of text and makes it unreadable.

[helvella Administrator in reply to FallingInReverse]

You are right - it is an invalid certificate.

I have tried to email someone but who knows whether they are the right people or will act?

[FallingInReverse in reply to helvella]

No problem! If there is a single number/range for TSH in a 17 year old that’s easy to type in, lmk. Otherwise all good!

[humanbean in reply to FallingInReverse]

Will this save? Yes it did.

Reference ranges

[cazlooks in reply to humanbean]

thank you, this is great, I've tried to find out if the ranges are correct, I've phoned the hospital department around 20 times they never pick up their phones, I'm going to have to go in to speak to them and it's quite a drive so I'm not happy about that, but I think it's the only way to get an answer.

[humanbean in reply to cazlooks]

Don't forget that different pathology departments will probably have different sets of reference ranges. The ones I posted are for University Hospitals Sussex.

But at least it gives you an idea of what the differences are between adults and children in terms of ranges.