late diagnosis

i was diagnosed with congenital hypothyroidism at 13 months old. even though i recieved medication, i've always had problems with health (get sick easily and take longer to get better) and learning. I have had memory and attention problems all throughout my school years and have the same problems now. could these health/memory/attention problems be related to my bieng diagnosed at a later time?

[Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D.]

No. There is no reason to think that those difficulies are related to the time of the diagnosis.

[Nichole505]

I asked this question to see what would be said. I have researched and found that it indeed is a problem associated with bieng diagnosed at a late age. The first year of a baby's life is very important in terms of mental and physical development. To not walk, crawl, speak, or even be able to feed yourself at 13 months old is indeed a problem. Do you not think that a lag in mental/physical development could have happened during this time?  You sure gave a short answer. no explanation whatsoever as to why you said no it isn't. Any doctor that says no to this question should have an explanation to back it up. Just saying no it isn't  good enough. It is obvious that not enough research was done on your part. Did you actually look any information up or did you just say no because you have no time to look it up? Are you really a doctor?

[Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D.]

You raise an interesting point, and that is the attempt to assign current problems to first year (approximately) experiences of a medical sort. There is no doubt that the medical status of an infant can have many effects. However, when you point to memory, and in particular, attention, you are talking about development in the frontal lobe of the brain, the last part of the brain to develop. The pre-frontal cortex does not fully develop until the very late teens as the brain develops from the back to the front. So my remark targets the particular variables you identified, not the overall reality that early life medical conditions can have an impact on later development.