developmental delay

My son was diagonised with borderline hypothyroidism when he was 1year old.He had developmental delayed milestones ,he walked when he was 18 months old and at age 1yr he was 35 pounds.He babled and spoke one word when he was almost 3 yrs old.Now he is 8 yrs old he has seriously delayed speech ,he speaks like 2-3 year old and has comprehension problems But since medication his blood reports are normal.I came to canada about 3 yrs back earlier i lived in mid east and in india and IN CANADA had his developmental dealyed tests done like  genetic test and autism and metabolic and brain MRI everything was normal and they even told me that his hypothyroidism was also borderline one and since he was taking medication the blood report is also normal.My question is his speech delay and also mental capacity to understand things is it due to hypothyroidism ?And since his diagonosis was late was it the cause for mental growth?he is in full time special education class.My pregnnacy was normal and at birth my son had jaundice other than that no complications his birth weight was 7.8 pounds.His obesity started when he was 4 months old he started to put on4 pounds every month and by 12 months he was 35 pounds.

[Deanna L Aftab Guy, MD]

I am very hesistant to blame the thyroid disease as the cause for his delay, many many times we have no cause. You have had an extensive workup including imaging. If he was born with congenital hypothyroidism these kids truly have classic findings, large tongue, mental delay, called cretinism-I dislike that name, your child sounds like there are other vague developmental needs. It is hard to tell, if he was born in the US, then at birth they did a newborn screen and screened him for congenital hypothyroidism.  I would focus on his overall needs, talk with his peds endo about his weight if that is now a concern, what genetic testing was done? did they test for prader willi syndrome? down syndrome?

[rbcf]

My daughter was floppy at birth and was slow at all the steps.  She couldn't lift her head and if left in the carrier her neck kinked it would stay that way.  The doctor blamed it on a slight amino acid high test. We had to find ways to get her to move and get ahead.  She was slow with all crawling, speech, walking, talking, seting up and so on She was alittle heavy but never bad- she got constipated  and had temper tantumes at 6 months and still she improved .  Unbalanced even now at 11 yr.  fine motor good now.  in second grade they thought she had ADD and gave her med but was tired and than hyper, {not to the excessive } She chewed her pencils down to nubs finger nails and can't stand tags., Very smart but forgets alot,  as the years go the worse her writing and some time speech not clear and still tired.  On her med they discovered that her pulse was 130 setting.  my family and myself have thyriod and I notice her being tired than hyper and pulse high I asked for a thyriod test, they thought Iron, b 12, folice acid was the problem , I called the other doctor and demanded a thyriod test and it was.  They just found a cyst on one side.  Hypo type She wasn't gaining weight /under because of the ADD meds keep her from eating and still won't hardly eat but she stayed at 58-62 lb from 3gr-5th.  I took her off and she has gain up to 90 lbs and looks good .  She is on 75mg of Leverthyroin/sp Now checking on cyst every 6 month.  She is still tired but the doctor won't change meds because the test are good.  Keep digging and watch how he reacts.  If I wasn't more observant the thyriod problem wouldn't have be found..
rbcf

[rbcf]

forgot to say - I was taking off my tyriod med because they said I was enthyriod and didn't check my levels again until after I quit breast feeding  at age two.  I don't know what a mother with low thyriod would have on a fetus but I now wonder if it did.

rbcf